


Lightfire

by RyuCrisis



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Clint Barton Feels, Clint Barton-centric, Drama, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Clint Barton, Protective Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2018-10-19 10:05:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 50,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10637643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyuCrisis/pseuds/RyuCrisis
Summary: When Clint Barton finds a young girl in an alley way, he had no idea how much it would change his life for the better. She gives his life new meaning and finally she has somebody to care about her. Clint/OC father/daughter type relationship. Will have Steve and Bucky later. Rated T for now, will eventually change to M for later bad stuff. Has both canon content and some AU.





	1. Little Soul Found

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello all! This is my first piece of work ever on here and I'm pretty darn excited about it! This will start after the first Avengers movie and go on after that with some cannon content and some AU stuff. I will also have a bit of x-men thrown in there too but not enough to put it into crossovers I don't think anyway. If it should go in the crossovers section I will change it. Please let me know what you think of this if anything needs to be changed or any body has any constructive criticism please let me know! Right now, this is T but will go to M eventually for bad stuff later on.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

 

Clint Barton ambled through Time Square weaving through people as he moved along. He let out a long slow sigh. He left Stark Tower some time ago to clear his head before he spontaneously combusted. He and Natasha had another huge fight. It seemed now that all they ever did was fight. They could barely get through a training exercise without beating the shit out of each other physically and mentally. He knew that there had been fissures and cracks forming in their relationship for sometime now. Up until now, he had been steadily refusing to acknowledge it. Unfortunately, Loki's mind fuck blew everything open like a giant catalyst and he could no longer do that.

For the most part, he considered himself to be recovering from the ordeal. However, he couldn't force himself to be the person he was before no matter how he tried. He knew that Natasha knew this and it bothered her immensely. It bothered her that she couldn't fix him like she'd done all times before this. Hell, if he could fix this entire mess and put things back the way they were before all of this, he would do it in a heartbeat.

Shaking out of his dismal thoughts, he realized that the sun was beginning to set. He decided it would be a swell idea to get back to the tower before Fury sent a search party on his sorry ass. He turned around and started walking back in the direction he came from.

Halfway there, he spotted a small coffee shop and stopped. He decided he might have better luck not having his head ripped off by Natasha if he had a peace offering and her favorite coffee might just do the trick. Crossing the street, he jogged up to the entrance of the coffee shop. As he reached for the door handle, something suddenly caused him to freeze mid-way. While he had no real super powers, he did have an incredible sensitivity and awareness to everything around him. Natasha commented more than once that it was damn near super human and it's gotten him out of more binds than he cared to admit. Right now it was screaming at him that something wasn't right.

Letting his blue-green eyes rove around the area, he saw that nothing seemed out of place. However, when his eyes landed on the small alleyway next to the coffee shop, a jolt of awareness traveled down his spine and he knew the feeling would not leave until he investigated it.

"Oh fuck my life." He muttered.

Approaching the alleyway cautiously, he entered it slowly. Almost immediately, he detected some small movement behind a very dirty dumpster. He hoped to fuck it was not just an alley cat or he might start shitting bricks sideways. Moving closer to the dumpster, he was suddenly assaulted by the acrid smell of very old human waste. The smell was so overpowering that it brought tears to his eyes. Knowing that something was definitely not right, he ignored the smell and moved around the dumpster.

What he found there made him almost vomit all over the ground.

A young girl no older than 18 years of age was tied to the side of the dumpster, judging from the state that she was in, for several weeks. The more of her appearance he took in, the angrier e became. Getting a better look at her, he saw that she was quite small for her age. Her hair was dark brown, very long and very matted. He could barely tell the color of her eyes because her pupils were so blown with fear. Even though her face was caked with layers of dirt, he could see that she could beautiful. She had a perfect little nose and perfect little mouth. He could even detect some freckles underneath the dirt. His eyes fell away form her face and focused on her neck. He could see the glinting of something metal around it and he frowned.

' _What in the fuck is that?'_ He wondered.

Getting just a bit closer, he could finally make out what it was. It was a fucking metal collar. Just staring at it made the anger erupt through his veins. He couldn't understand who in their right mind would put a collar on a young girl. Getting a good look at what she had on, he started to put some of the pieces together. She had on some kind of gown that was probably white at one point. He saw that it was too big for her and it exposed her left shoulder. It looked like it came from some kind of medical facility. He realized that she must have been instatutionalized somewhere and they abandoned her here.

The thought of it made him sick. He would find who this and when he did, they were going to pay.

Approaching the girl carefully, he bent down slowly to get a better at the metal shackle around her right wrist, he could see that the metal was attached to a chain that was wrapped around the handle thing sticking out of the dumpster. It made him almost think that somebody left her tied up in this spot with the intention of returning to her at some point.

As soon as he touched the metal around the girl's wrist, she suddenly came to life and went ballistic on him. Not that he could blame her. He tried to subdue her the best he could without causing her anymore pain.

"Woah, whoa, whoa! I'm on your side! I promise I won't hurt you." He tried to sooth.

Hearing his voice, the girl's head snapped in his direction and she looked him straight in the eyes. He was taken aback at just how intense her stare was. He knew he couldn't leave her now. Slowly, he began to feel her panic ebb slightly and took the moment to examine the metal around her wrist.

Finding an actual keyhole, his left eye almost started twitching.

Looking to the ground, he searched for the sharpest object he could find. He would be a pretty damn lame master assassin if he couldn't even pick a simple lock. Working at the lock, he managed to get it undone. It took a little longer due to lack of proper equipment but he got the shackle off of her wrist.

As soon as the shackle hit the ground, the girl examined her wrist and then looked back at him. He could see the fear slowly ebb away form her eyes. He finally got a decent look at her eye color and was shocked. She had deep violet irises. Now he really knew that there was something really not right with this girl. However, his awareness was telling him that he needed to protect her and he trusted his sixth sense more than any person.

Suddenly, he felt the girl shift and was shocked to see that she was trying to move closer to him. Her small hand reached out and latched onto the front of his shirt. Despite the fact that she was very dirty and positively reeked, he let her come as close as she wanted. The urge to comfort her far outweighed her appearance or her smell.

"It's alright, you're safe now. I won't let anything happen to you again." He cooed, stroking her dirty, matted hair back.

At his touch, the girl seemed to calm further and she tried to crawl onto his lap the best that she could. For the first time, he could see how bad her legs were. They were covered in sores and cuts. He saw that her upper thighs were smeared with blood. Seeing the blood and knowing very well what caused it made his blood boil in anger. Knowing an angry outburst would do more harm than good, he forced himself to let it go for the time being. He would take it out on his targets later.

He realized very quickly that he would not be able to get her back to the tower on his own. Letting out an annoyed huff, he decided what his best option would be. He couldn't involve Fury whatsoever, he would take her away and do god knows what to her trying to figure out how she ticked and where she came from. He refused to let the happen. His best bet would be Coulson. Coulson acted like he had an iron rod shoved up his ass all the time but he knew Coulson could be trusted.

Fishing out his cell from his coat pocket, he punched in Coulson's number and was not shocked when Coulson answered on the first ring.

" **Agent Barton, so you are coming back tonight, I'm shocked.** " Coulson's monotone voice droned through the phone.

Clint fought to roll his eyes at Coulson's lame ass attempt at a joke.

" **Look sir, I'm sorry I'm not back yet but I've run into a situation.** " He explained.

" **A situation? What kind of situation?** " Coulson asked.

" **I found a girl in an alley way, sir. I can't get her back to the tower on my own and she needs medical attention immediately.** " He forced himself to explain further.

There was a pause and he panicked slightly. He didn't know what he would do of Couslon forced him to deal with this on his own. Suddenly, the phone came back to life again.

" **I see, tell me your location and I will send some men to help you."** Coulson stated.

Clint let out a breath he didn't even know was holding.

' _Thank fuck_.' He thought in relief.

" **Thank you, sir. Also, can you not inform Fury of this yet. The girl is severely damaged and I'm afraid too much will overwhelm her.** " He asked, trying to keep his voice level. The last thing he needed was Coulson to suspect anything.

There was another pause and again Clint held his breath. Thankfully this one was shorter.

" **Understood. I'll see what I can do. But you better not be leaving anything out.** " Coulson replied sternly.

Hearing that made him want to wince and let out a relieved sigh at the same time.

He explained to Coulson exactly where he was and hung up his phone. He slipped it back into his coat pocket. It wasn't long before he sensed that help would arrive shortly.

Looking down at the girl in his arms, it seemed she could sense it too.

He knew without a doubt that the girl wasn't human and wondered if this was part of it. She began to get agitated, and started to try and squirm away from him. He tried to calm her down the best that he could.

"Hush, hush, I know it's scary but these people are coming to help you. I won't leave you, I promise." He murmured.

This calmed her some but not much. It only got worse when the S.H.I.E.L.D medical personnel found them. They tried to pry the girl off of him so they could examine her properly and she let out a blood curdling, distorted scream.

As she tried to fight them off and reach out for him, her violet iris began to glow. Her hands began to glow bright and crackle with built up electricity. Then as quickly as the commotion started, it came to an abrupt halt when the collar around her neck suddenly came to life and tried to shock the life out of her.

She started to slump toward the dirty ground unconscious but he managed to catch her before she fell completely.

He couldn't even begin comprehend what he just witnessed.


	2. Alone No More

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey all! So here is the first honest to god chapter of this thing! I hope everybody likes it! Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: Don't own it.

 

_Clint_

Three days. It had been exactly three damn days since he last saw the girl he rescued. It was driving him damn near insane not knowing anything about how she was doing or what was happening to her. After he got back to the tower and cleaned up, Coulson came and had a chat with him and advised him to hold off on going to check on the girl so it would make him seem more impassive to the whole thing. He really wanted to object to the idea and tell Coulson to go suck on the end of one of his exploding arrows but he knew Coulson had a point. Plus he really didn't want Fury catching wind of her yet. So, he forced himself to obey the order.

On the first day he did nothing but pace his room all day. On the second day, he decided that he would go shoot at some targets to try and take his mind off of her. At first it felt glorious but after a while the niggling feeling soon returned. His need to see that the girl was alright was far out weighing his need to beat the shit out of something. After a few hours of restless shooting, he returned to his room and started pacing again. By the third day, he was positively jumping out of his skin. It was driving him insane and it felt like he hadn't slept the entire three days at all, not that he ever slept regularly anyway. Exiting his room, he slammed the door behind himself and started striding down the hallway. His awareness seemed to be all over the place for some reason but he tried to ignore it.

Halfway to the medical wing, his awareness started screaming code blue at him. Stopping in his tracks, he turned around and saw that Natasha was in the hallway standing a ways away from him. Crossing her arms, she leant against the wall and gave him a look that promised pain in the form of a training session later. She would interrogate him to find out was going on with him and he would tell her one way or the other. What concerned him more was the fact that his awareness has started perceiving her as an enemy. That was the last thing he wanted. He still cared for her deeply just maybe not in the way she wanted him to. Turning away from Natasha, he continued his trek down the hallway until he found the medical wing. Entering the wing, he stopped the first medical personnel he came across and it happened to be a young nurse. He could work with this.

"Say, you wouldn't be able to tell me where they brought the young girl I found three days ago, would you?" He asked kindly, turning up the charm as much as he could.

It worked a hell of a lot better than he thought it would.

"Agent Barton, hi! Sure, she is still under sedation in room four down in the intensive care wing. Is there anything else I can do for you?" She asked suggestively, fluttering her eyelashes.

He had to hold back a shudder. This chick was blond and buxom but totally fake in personality and appearance, her face was painted on and he would bet money that her tits were probably fake too. Not his type at all. How she got this job in the first he did not know but it probably involved a lot of sleeping around.

"No thank you, sweetness. But thank you for the information." He replied, saluting her as he walked away.

Despite having absolutely no use for that chick, he preened a little at the fact that he could pretty much make any chick do anything he wanted. It was a great boost to his ego. It was too bad stuff like that would never work with Natasha.

Finding the intensive care unit pretty quickly, he looked for room 4. Stopping at the door, he let out a long, deep breath. He had no idea what she would look like cleaned up or what they did to her. He could only hope that they found a way to remove that stupid piece of shit collar from around her neck in the very least. Opening her door, he stepped into her room. From where he stood, he could only see tufts of dark, brown hair sticking out from the mass of sheets and a couple of tubes. As he got closer, he could see that they cleaned her up well. Despite all the tubes, she looked comfortable and was sleeping soundly. Pulling up a chair, he situated himself next to her bed and watched her. Now that she was cleaned up, he could see that he was right in his assessment that the girl was very pretty. Even more so now that she was clean. His curiosity was nagging at him about the collar. He had to know if they managed to get it off of her. Carefully, he moved some of the blankets out of the way and was pissed off to see that the offending piece of shit still around her neck.

"Fuck me." He hissed angrily.

He was seeing red. He had to go question the assholes who were supposed to be in charge of caring for her. As he got up to do so, the door swung open and Coulson stepped in with a fat manila folder in hand. He sat back down and Coulson approached him. He didn't look at all surprised to see him there so that was probably a really good thing. Coulson inclined his head in greeting and dropped the fat folder into his lap.

"Agent Barton, here are the girl's files. Every piece of information we could find on her is in that folder. I trust you will keep this to yourself?" Coulson stated knowingly.

Clint nodded obediently. He didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

"Of course sir, if you don't mind me asking why is that collar still around her neck?" He asked, forcing himself to keep his voice even.

Coulson sighed and for the first time he saw emotion leak onto his stern features.

"The medical personnel tried to remove the collar. But every time they tried, it electrocuted them. It seems that whoever left her there to rot had a plan if she was ever found. The girl's files will tell you more." He explained.

Clearly Coulson had already read those files. Clint could tell that the older man was trying to keep the emotion out of his voice as he tried to explain the whole fucked up situation. He was failing miserably and he couldn't blame the man.

"One more thing Agent Barton, I have assigned you to watch over her. Look after her and make sure she settles in alright. Fury will want to see her and she needs to be ready for it. Make sure she is." He ordered.

Before Clint could utter a word, Coulson abruptly turned around and exited the room. He would never ever admit it out loud but he could have kissed the man. Now he had a reason to be with the girl all the time. He owed Coulson big time. Looking down at the folder in his lap, he debated whether to start looking at it now or later. He decided later on would be the wiser option. If he got pissed off enough to start throwing shit he didn't want it to be around here.

Sighing softly, he started stroking the girl's head pushing her hair out of her face. He noted that it now felt soft and clean instead of dirt caked and oily. What a difference a good wash made. He could see the freckles on her face clearly too now that it was clean. She made a small, slightly distorted noise and tried to turn her head in the direction of his hand. He frowned at what the noise sounded like. That was the second vocalization that she made that sounded a little bit off. It made him wonder what she was hiding under that stupid collar. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't good. However, he was happy to see that being chained to that stupid dumpster hadn't destroyed her ability to move completely.. He sat there enjoying the silence with exception of a couple of machines beeping.

A good two hours later, he made the decision to get up and go back to his room. He had to know what was in those files even though it was probably going to piss him off badly. Getting back to his room, he locked the door behind himself and threw the folder onto his table. He put on some coffee and sat down. He didn't always like the way he felt after drinking coffee, but he didn't think he would make it through this without it. Sitting down at his table, he pulled the folder closer to himself and opened it carelessly. He started with her basic information.

_Name: Charlie Fraser._

_Age: 19._

His left eye started twitching when he saw there was no birthday. Those bags of dicks couldn't even be bothered to record her damn birthday. He decided to save that piece of information for later, at least he knew what to call her now and he didn't have to refer to her as girl anymore. He continued reading.

_Location: subject was found at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children._

_Age she was retrieved at: 15._

_Mutation Class: 5._

_Mutant Code Name: Lightfire._

_Mutation Type and Abilities: Empathic, Psychic. Can create energy from the palms of her hands depending on her emotions, can 'feel things' based on what she touches._

Clint swallowed hard. Not only was this girl stuck in that hell for 4 years but she was taken from a place that was supposed to keep her safe. How in the fuck did that even happen in the first place? He didn't know much of the school but he knew it was supposed to keep children with mutations safe and nurture then. Another thing he couldn't comprehend was why weren't they looking for her? Surely somebody would have heard something somewhere. He wondered that maybe her mutation was really that bad that they all just gave up on her. But the file stated that she was found there, maybe she was taken from there and they just gave up on looking for either way it was bullshit and it royally pissed him off but it would explain a lot. Like what in the fuck happened to her after he rescued her and she tried to activate her mutation. They must have slapped that collar onto her to control her mutation so she couldn't hurt them. He was positive that it was the people who experimented on her who put the collar on her and it wasn't something that happened to her when she was at the mutant school. He skipped through the rest of the basic information (which he would read later) and got to what the actual experiment was about.

_The ultimate goal of this project is to create the perfect mutant weapon. Finally, we have located the perfect subject with the perfect mutations. Where others have failed, we will succeed. Together with the findings of the Weapon X program and our own we will combine them to make this project a reality. As soon as the subject is brought here, Phase 1 will begin immediately._

_Phase 1: Prep subject for surgery to implant mind control chip. Surgery was successful; test of the mind control chip in the subject was successful._

_Phase 2: Found the appropriate feral mutant for mutation gene transplant. Transplant was successful; subject is exhibiting signs of feral mutation. Hearing, sight and sense of smell are all enhanced. Subject can now heal herself when injured._

_Phase 3: Graft adamantium onto her skull and bones. Graft went successful; Subject lived through the procedure. Subject went to cardiac arrest twice due to pain threshold overload._

_Subject has survived all three phases and testing can now begin. Should the subject pass all of the tests, field trials can begin. Should the subject begin to fail the tests and become uncontrollable, a memory wipe might be necessary. If that situation ever occurs, three shots to the head with silver bullets only should do the job. No more, no less._

There were pictures and detailed descriptions of each procedure she endured. Looking at them made him feel ill. When he figured out who they were, these fuckers would pay. He would make sure of that but for now he would take care of her. He now made it his personal goal to make sure that she was well cared for and that she knew that there was somebody out there that did in fact care about her. The pictures went on until they had her ready for field work. It seemed that they tried experimenting with other mutations along the way too but none of those stuck. They tried to turn her into some kind of Frankenstein, hodge-podge mutant from hell. He forced himself to read through what happened through the field tests. As much as he would rather set fire to this shit, he needed to know why they abandoned her.

_Subject has started field testing today. Subject has returned from her first field mission successfully. There were no glitches in the control chip._

For weeks it went on the same way, it seemed that they would send her on a mission, she would come back successful and they would note that there were no glitches in her control chip. He continued to read until 3 or so months before he found her.

_Subject has started to disobey her handlers; her mutation seems to be compromising the control chip. Subject's mind has been wiped clean._

He knew what that meant; it meant that those fuckers shot in her the head with silver bullets three times. This happened four more times before they finally gave up on her and decided to try and dispose of her. There was one last entry before that happened.

_Subject no long obeys her handlers; her control chip has been compromised beyond repair and she will have to be terminated. Subject was terminated._

After that, it just ended. There were no more reports no nothing but it was clear that they never 'terminated' her because he found her. He could only assume that the person charged with her disposal suddenly grew a heart like the tin man because he found her alive and not dead. It was either that or the pile of shit was just too much of a coward to do the job all of the way. Regardless of that, the poor girl shouldn't have gone through this shit to being with. He put his head in his hands and sighed. After reading all of that, there was something that still bugged the shit out of him. Why the fuck wasn't the school trying to look for her? Somebody somewhere must have seen or heard something. Was her mutation that bad that nobody wanted anything to do with her? There were too many damn unanswered questions for his liking.

Letting out an annoyed growl, he shoved all of the papers away from himself hard. Some of them fell onto the floor but he couldn't bring himself to give a shit. However, when something else fell out with them he did. Getting up from the table, he bent down to sift through the fallen papers and pulled out a small memory stick. He picked up the memory stick and examined it. Maybe it would hold the answers the sought, he could only hope it would start him in the right direction and he wouldn't need Natasha to bail his ass out.

For now though, he had enough info to start helping her and that was his main priority at the moment. Suddenly, his awareness flared to life and he knew that Charlie needed him badly. He wasted no time in getting back to the medical ward as fast as he could.

_Charlie_

Charlie's violet eyes fluttered open and she tried to take in her surroundings. She didn't know where she was but she wasn't tied to the dumpster any longer and for that she was extremely grateful. Being tied to that dumpster had been the most humiliating thing she ever had to endure in her entire life. She couldn't believe her handlers just left her there to rot. The worst part was that whole time that she was tied to the dumpster, she knew that people came and went because she could smell them but nobody wanted to stop and help her. Either because she smelled too bad or they just didn't care. Sometimes homeless drunken men would try and provoke her mutation into activating just so the collar around her neck would shock her on purpose.

Letting out a soft sigh, she reached up to see if the collar was still around her neck and was not shocked when her fingers came in contact with the offending metal. Of course it was still on her. So the people in this place (whatever it was) couldn't get it off of her either. She sniffed the air and her nose wrinkled slightly. She quickly determined that she was in some kind of hospital. She hated hospitals but it was better than being tied to that dumpster.

Her mind wondered to the man who saved her. She had been so delirious with hunger and fear that she couldn't remember exactly what he looked like except for his eyes and his smell. He had eyes like the ocean and smelt like all things good. She couldn't remember very much of what happened but she remembered him. She wished he was here right now with her; she didn't like this place very much. It smelled sterile and gross. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted when a doctor and a nurse came into her room. They smelt funny and she didn't like it.

"Well look at you, up and awake. How are you feeling?" The doctor asked her warmly.

Unfortunately, she couldn't respond because she couldn't talk. Her handlers once told her that she talked too much and absolutely hated it when she sang. So, they did something about it. They cut her throat not enough to kill her of course but enough make her loose the use of her vocal chords. All she could do was give the doctor sort of a so-so gesture.

"Oh dear, you seem to be able to hear but you can't talk can you? Can you sign?" He asked her again.

She shook her head indicating that no she couldn't talk and then nodded indicating that she did indeed know sign language. The doctor smiled at her.

"Are you in any pain? How are you feeling?" He asked, repeating his earlier question.

"I am feeling alright, not in any pain." She signed back.

The questioning went back and forth for a bit until the doctor started inquiring about the fact that she came in with blood smeared all over her thighs. Immediately, she began to clam up and she didn't want to answer anymore of his questions but he kept pushing her. She could feel the mutations inside of her warring to be released, this time the feral part of her won out and she knew that the collar couldn't stop her. It only shocked her when she tried to produce white energy from her palms. Her violet eyes turned cat like and her fangs grew. She bared them at the doctor. Letting out a low distorted growl, she lunged for the doctor and suddenly she had four people on top of her.

She saw that one of them carried a needle and knew that they were going to try and sedate her again. She knew that this wouldn't end well at all.


	3. Rescue Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New Chapter! Hope everybody likes this! Thanks for the subscriptions and Kudos(s)! I really appreciate it! Now on with the show!

_Clint_

Clint ran back to the medical ward as fast as he could. He knew that he was supposed to be going for a training session with Natasha now but fuck that Charlie was way more important to him at the moment. He had to make sure that she was okay. As he got closer to the ward, he could hear distorted growling and snarling. What in the fucking hell were they doing to her in there? He entered her room and was shocked to see 3 orderlies trying to hold her down. There was also what he assumed to be a nurse with a needle in his hand waiting for the right moment to knock her out. She was thrashing and snarling. She didn't look like herself either. Her violet eyes looked cat-like and she had fangs. He realized very quickly that something set off her feral mutation. He saw that all of her fury was directed at the doctor who looked scared shitless. He had to intervene and stop her before she did something that she would regret later. He immediately jumped into action and pushed one of the orderlies out of the way. The other two were still trying to keep her under control.

"Agent Barton, what the hell are you doing? She's out of her mind she'll rip you apart!" One of the orderlies yelled.

"No she won't!" He countered.

He had to get her attention onto him and away from the Doctor.

"Charlie, sweetness, look at me!" He ordered loudly.

Hearing her name being called, her head snapped in his direction but it wasn't enough to completely snap her out of it. However, it was enough to keep her attention solely on him.

"Charlie, you have to calm down and let it go!" He tried again.

He was shocked to see that she was trying to listen to him. She stilled slightly and cocked her head at him as if realizing that his voice sounded somehow familiar to her. Suddenly, she started sniffing the air. He realized that she was scenting him. His scent must smell familiar to her too. He saw that she was beginning to calm down some. His awareness seemed to calm down some too and he knew that the immediate danger was over. He gestured for the orderlies to let her go and they looked at him like he grew three extra heads and grew tiny little purple hairs all over his body. He rolled his eyes. He forced himself to remember that they didn't have awareness like he did but clearly she had no interest in the Doctor anymore and she was completely focused on him.

"Look, as you can plainly see she has no interest in the doctor anymore. I promise that you can let her go now and she won't hurt a soul." He reassured.

Looking at each other, the orderlies hesitated for a moment and then slowly let her go. Sure enough, she started trying to crawl towards him completely ignoring all the other people in the room. He saw that her movements were a little jerky and realized that the sores on her legs must still be bothering her. He frowned; she must have aggravated them in all of the commotion. That royally pissed him off; he wanted to know what in the fuck set her off in the first place. He was about to ask the Doctor that when a small hand suddenly latched into the front of his shirt. He looked down and his blue-green eyes softened. Her other hand latched onto the front of his shirt and started nuzzling her face into his chest. She let out a slightly distorted, contented purr. He stroked her head for a moment and then turned his attention back to the doctor who was looking at them with his nose wrinkled in what he assumed to be disgust. He wondered if it had something to do with the fact that she was a mutant. He knew that some people held prejudice against them. Personally, he thought the whole thing was bullshit and they deserve as equal rights as anybody else on the damn planet. He had just about enough of this stupid Doctor.

"So, do you mind telling me just what the fuck you did to set her off?" He demanded to know.

The doctor gave him an incredulous look at being blamed for the whole ordeal.

"Me? I just simply did my job and assessed her. I questioned her about why she had blood smeared all over her thighs and she refused to tell me what happened to her. I tried questioning her more and it was like she suddenly lost her mind." The doctor explained.

At the doctor's explanation, he fought against the urge to completely lose his shit. Form what he read in Charlie's file, her mutation also involved being empathic. The last thing that she needed was to feel his anger on top everything else that happened to her. He wondered how somebody could be so damn stupid. It was no fucking wonder Charlie freaked out. Whatever happened to cause the blood on her thighs was probably severely traumatic to her. She didn't need some fucking idiot interrogating her about it.

"Why would you question her about that? She's in a place that's completely strange to her and has probably been through the worst hell of her life. Worse that you could ever imagine and you decide to question her about THAT? I think it's time you left." He stated angrily.

The doctor tried in vain to protest but it was useless.

"But Agent Barton, I…" The doctor tried to say, but he cut him off.

"I don't care, just get out! That goes for all of you! GET OUT!" He snarled angrily.

He really tried to keep it contained but he just couldn't stop his anger from overflowing a little bit. For reasons he hadn't quite deciphered yet, he felt extremely protective of Charlie and was so pissed that she was needlessly traumatized even more than she already was. Realizing that he meant business, all of the medical personnel vacated the room quickly thankfully. Turning his attention back to Charlie, he was relieved to see that his little spell of anger hadn't affected her at all possibly because she was still coming out of her feral haze. He saw that her eyes had returned to normal and her fangs had retracted. His blue-green eyes drifted to the offending piece of metal around her neck. He wondered why it hadn't tried to shock the life out of her when she turned feral. This was something he would have to ask her after she was settled again.

He continued to stroke the top of her head enjoying the silence until she suddenly came to life and tried to get away from him as fast as she could. She was looking at him with such fear and he was seriously confused for a moment. Why would she suddenly be so scared of him? The light bulb suddenly came on and his anger resurfaced. It caused her to flinch back even more and he forced himself to tamp it down so she wouldn't be even more scared. He realized that her handlers must have punished her badly whenever something like this happened. She must think that He was going to punish her! Just thinking of what they did to her made him feel sick to his stomach. Giving her a gentle look, he put his hands in front of himself in the surrender position to show her that he wouldn't cause her any harm.

"Charlie honey, it's okay. I promise that I won't hurt you." He reassured

She gave him a look that was cross between incredulous and disbelief. It saddened him that she thought everybody on this planet wanted to cause her pain. She looked at him with distrust and refused to move. He sighed softly; he wasn't giving up without a fight.

"Charlie, I know it's hard but I swear to you that I will never ever hurt you." He reiterated softly.

She looked at him like she was trying to decide what to do. He waited patiently until she made her decision. Slowly, she started moving towards him. Once she got close enough to touch him, she stopped and held out her hand. Momentarily, he wondered just what she was up to until remembered that her file said something about feeling things through touch. Maybe she was trying to feel him out through touch. Using slow and precise movements so that he didn't scare her, he reached out and gently touched her hand. He was shocked at the intensity of what he felt being connected to her in this way. It seemed that not only was she reading him, she was letting him feel what she felt. He had never felt anything like this before. This experience was something that would forever be seared into his mind.

" _I'm scared._ " He heard a small voice murmur inside of his head.

He looked at her in shock. Was she talking to him inside of his head? This was beyond weird.

" _Are you talking to me inside of my head?_ " He thought incredulously.

She nodded to him. She looked a little apprehensive.

" _Yes, it's the only way I can talk, except for sign language. Is it okay? Do you want me to stop it?"_ Her small voice asked softly.

He gave her a soft look and nodded back.

" _Of course it's okay, what happened to you? Why can't you talk?_ " He really wanted to know the answer to that question.

She looked both ashamed and apprehensive. He knew that she wasn't ready to reveal that yet and he would have to be patient with her until she was.

" _It doesn't matter, where am I? Who are you?_ " She asked

He could detect the tiniest bit of curiosity in her voice.

" _My name is Clint Barton, you are at Tony Stark's tower; it's being used as a headquarters for something called S.H.I.E.L.D. I know it's difficult to understand but I promise that you are safe here. You are under my protection._ " He explained to her inside of his head.

She looked at him deeply for a moment; he could tell that she was trying to process what he just explained to her. She nodded and then suddenly severed the connection. He knew that she was done talking for now and that was okay by him. Despite the fact that she was still very unsure about everything, he knew that she had decided that he was okay and that was a huge step in the right direction. Again using so slow, deliberate movements, he approached the side of her bed. He made sure that she could see every movement he made so he wouldn't surprise her by accident. He then sought out her permission to help her get back into bed and get comfortable again. She gave a small nod indicating that he had her permission to do so. Gently, he helped her back into bed. He was careful not to aggravate her sores any more than they already were. She gave him a grateful look for that. Satisfied that she was comfortable and tucked in, he made to leave so she could get some rest but was stopped when her small hand latched onto the back of his shirt. He turned around and gave her a questioning look. She gestured for him to give her his hand. He complied readily.

" _Can you stay with me for a while…please?_ " She asked softly.

He could tell that she was really nervous to ask him such a thing afraid that she would be rejected. His blue-green eyes soften considerably.

"Of course I'll stay with you." He murmured softly, giving her hand a little squeeze.

He could see the relief plain as day on her features. She got comfortable and he once again tucked the sheets around her. Gently, he brought his hand to the top of her head and stroked it gently. For a split second her violet eyes became large at the touch but she didn't shy away from it and that made him very happy. He was sure that this was the first time she was touched in a way that didn't result in some kind of pain. He was even more happy when she allowed his and to remain there instead of shying away. He continued to caress her head until she became sleepy. Once he was sure that she was asleep, he got up from the chair he was occupying and quietly left the room.

Had a lot of things that he had to take care of. The primary one being that he had to tell the dipshits in charge of her care to only allow female medical personnel to care for her from now on. After all that she's been through, the last thing that she would want is any male trying to examine her doctor or not and especially after what just happened to her. He also wanted to make sure none of them questioned her about any of that. This was hard enough for her to deal with without all of that shit on top of it. He also had to talk to Tony and Coulson at some point about getting a bigger room. The small room he had now would not be big enough for both him and Charlie. His top priority was Charlie's comfort right now. Charlie had absolutely nothing to her name and he had to fix that too. He wanted to make sure that she had everything that she needed and then some. He never wanted her to be without again.

But first things first, he had to deal with the idiot medical personnel. After he did that, he went to go and seek out Natasha. He still had to go get his ass handed to him by her after all. This was NOT something he was looking forward to at all.

Sometime Later

_Charlie_

Charlie suddenly jolted awake. She breathed a sigh of relief that she did remember who she was and what had happened to her recently. Because she had been shot in the head so many times with silver bullets, she was petrified that one day she would wake up and not remember who she was. That thought scared the crap out of her. Despite all of the stuff that's happened to her, she would never ever want to forget who she was. Picking at her scratchy sheets, she thought about what happened to her earlier today. She couldn't believe what that doctor did, what part of no didn't he understand? She hadn't meant to lose control like she did but she couldn't help it. When she felt any strong emotion like anger, the feral part of her became extremely hard to control. It had always been like that since she acquired the mutation. No matter how many times her handlers tried to wipe her memories when her control chip became corrupted, there were certain people that she would never forget and Victor Creed was one of those people. He was the mutant who volunteered his genes for the experiment. She never found why volunteered himself for something that was so insane but she supposed that it had to be something important. She remembered meeting the man like it was yesterday. After the feral genes had been spliced into her genetic make-up, her handlers had been unable to get anywhere near her without fear of getting ripped apart. So who better to tame her than the mutant she got the gene from in the first place?

Memory

_Charlie paced her cage restlessly, her handlers refused to come near her in her feral haze. So far, nobody had been able to break her from it. Suddenly, she smelt something that was almost familiar. It smelt feral like her. She watched as a scruffy looking man approached her cage and bent down to her level. He had dark, cat-like eyes and had a toothy grin on his face. She saw that he had fangs like her too._

" _Well, look at you, little cub." He purred._

_Curiosity getting the better of her, she carefully approached the side of the cage that he was crouched down next to. She watched as he placed his hand palm up though bars. She looked at it in shock. Her handlers taught him how to approach her. Cautiously, she touched his palm and was assaulted with his emotions. He was angry and she could tell he was generally not a nice person but he held no ill will toward her. He was even curious about her, a weird curiosity but a curiosity none the less. She gathered from his emotions that he was here to help her to control her feral instincts._

_While she wasn't impressed by this, she realized that this was probably the only way she would ever leave her cage again. She watched cautiously as he produced a key from his coat pocket and opened her cage door. As he stepped in, she tried to shrink away but he grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her. She immediately started to struggle and growl in his grip. He growled twice as loudly right back at her and forced her to turn around. She could feel him pressing up against her. She felt him dip his head and run his nose along her neck. She felt him inhaling her scent and she had to supress a shudder._

" _Listen here little cub, you belong to me now. Do you understand?" He growled._

_She wanted to put up a fight and make him leave her alone. But she had to comply with what he wanted and do what he asked if she ever wanted to leave her cage. She had to be good._

_She could do nothing but nod._

End Memory

She shook herself from the memory. Despite the fact that Victor was a jerk most of the time, he did help her and when he was around she got punished far less when he was with her. One day, he just left abruptly and never came back. She would never ever admit it out loud, but it upset her a lot. She felt like she lost only person that was remotely an ally. Her punishments returned tenfold and none of her handlers could break her from her feral haze like he could. Because of that, they just punished her more.

Somehow though, that man with the ocean eyes managed to do it. She didn't even know how he did it. She felt so humiliated after she came out of the haze. She thought for sure that he would want to punish her for her lack of control but he didn't instead he wanted to try and help her. She didn't even know how to process that. For the first time ever somebody wanted to actually help her. She had such a vague recollection of what 'help' even was. He smelled so good and was so nice to her that she WANTED him to help her. He was the first person in so long to touch her in a way that didn't cause her pain.

He told her that his name was Clint Barton and that she was under his protection. She found herself really liking the sound of that. She really wanted to know what it felt like to having somebody protecting her instead of hurting her. She couldn't help but think how lucky she was that he found her tied to that dumpster, she didn't even want to think of what would have happened to her if hadn't of found her. She shuddered at that thought. She probably would have wasted away.

Getting comfortable as she could in her blankets, she let herself drift back off to sleep slowly she relished in the feeling of being in a safe place for the first time in so long.

She had her man with the ocean eyes, Clint Barton to thank for that.


	4. New Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Sweet Crap I am so sorry that this took so long! I had some stress going on in my life with my sick cat but she got better and everything is good now! Thank you all so much for the subscriptions and kudos(s). It means a lot to me! I hope you all like this chapter too!

 

 

 

_Charlie_

Charlie let out a soft sigh. Currently, she was picking at her dinner. She was still getting used having daily meals. She always felt hungry but because she had been deprived of proper meals for so long; she found it hard to eat big meals so frequently. Not that the food tasted bad or anything like that. It was actually better than anything she's eaten in quite a long time. She inwardly shook her head. Here she was, enjoying hospital food. It really HAD been forever sine she had any proper meals. She shifted slightly to get more comfortable and instantly regretted it. Her sores were still bothering her quite a bit. She frowned at that. Her healing factor was still all messed it up it seemed, possibly because she was suffering from malnutrition so badly. She hoped it would get better as she got stronger again.

Sniffing the air, she determined that somebody was coming and it wasn't Clint sadly. Sniffing the air once more, she was able to determine that the person was female. For some odd reason females always smelt cleaner than males. She didn't know why that was. The door creaked open slowly and in stepped an older female doctor with graying hair and very kind looking grey eyes. She smelt a lot less funny than the previous doctor.

"Well hello there! My name is Doctor Margie, how are you feeling today?" The doctor asked kindly.

She hesitated for a moment; she decided on what she should tell Doctor Margie. She decided the truth would be the best way to go. She couldn't be any worse than the previous doctor was, she seemed a lot kinder anyway,

"I'm feeling a little sore." She signed.

The doctor frowned at her.

"Well that just won't do. I will adjust the dose of your pain medication. Are you comfortable with me looking at your sores? I want to make sure that they aren't infected." Doctor Margie explained kindly.

She bit her lip. She wasn't quite how to respond to what Doctor Margie just told her. Her instincts were screaming at her to say 'no' even though this Doctor was clearly not a threat. She was just so used to having to protect herself from everybody that it was hard to let her guard down for anything but this Doctor seemed okay. Plus, if they were infected she would need antibiotics to clear up the infection anyway. However scared she was, she knew that she should let the Doctor take a look at her sores. Oh how she wished Clint was here with her.

Looking at Doctor Margie, she nodded a little unsurely and gave her permission to have her sores examined. Doctor Margie gave her a look of approval.

"Thank you dear, I promise I'll be quick and it'll be painless." She reassured.

Doctor Margie helped her set her dinner tray aside so she could gain access to her legs. Gently, she pushed the covers aside and lifted her gown so she could look at how the sores were healing. As she examined them, Doctor Margie made a noise of disapproval.

"Well, they aren't healing as well as they should be. I will give you some antibiotics and that should clear everything up and make you feel a lot better." Doctor Margie informed kindly.

She nodded and let the Doctor cover her back up again. Giving her another warm smile, Doctor Margie adjusted the amount of painkillers that she was getting via her IV drip and added some antibiotics. She really hoped that this would kick-start her healing factor and she would begin to feel better faster. She really wanted out of this stupid hospital. After adjusting her medication, the kind doctor gave her a nice smile.

"There, that should do it. You should be up and running in no time! If you need anything just push the little call button to your right and somebody will come help you. I will be back in a bit to check your progress. Rest well, dear." Doctor Margie said kindly.

She nodded softly and the kind doctor left her room.

She had to admit that she didn't hate that doctor. Compared to the pushy male one, she was a dream. Not once did that doctor ask her anything, just checked her sores and adjusted her pain medication. She still hated hospitals but maybe being stuck in this place wouldn't be quite as terrible as she imagined it would be. She kind of wondered what was with the sudden change of Doctors. She wondered if it had something to do with Clint. Thinking of Clint caused her heart to flutter a little bit. Not in a romantic way or anything like that, just in a happy sort of way. It felt so good to be cared for by somebody.

As she continued to think about Clint, something else popped into her mind. Before he found her, she never really made any effort to communicate with anybody in her mind with the exception of Victor a couple of times because she found it to be too personal. She didn't like sharing her emotions with people and she sure as heck wouldn't share them with her handlers, she knew that they would have figured out a way to use the ability against her anyway. Deep down, she knew that Clint would never do anything like that. She didn't know how she knew that, she just did.

Letting out a long yawn, she tried to get comfortable in her bed. She could feel the drugs really kicking in and knew that she needed to sleep for a bit. She let her violet eyes drift shut and she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

_Clint_

Clint let out a painful grunt as he walked down the hallway to the medical ward. During their training session Natasha really did a number on him. His head and his heart weren't really into it and this was something Natasha could tell right away. She let him know painfully what she thought of that. She also 'interrogated' him until he spilled everything about Charlie too. Immediately, she wanted him to give the responsibility of caring for her to somebody else. That was something that he just couldn't do, she needed him and he knew that she wouldn't trust anybody else to come anywhere near her. He just couldn't understand why she felt so threatened by a 19 year old girl when there was no need for her to be. He only hoped he could show her that before their relationship deteriorated even more. He shook his head and let out a long sigh. He would think of a solution to that problem at a later date. Right now, he wanted to go and see Charlie. He had a bag of goodies for her. She didn't really have anything that was her own and he wanted to change that. He bought her a bunch of necessities like a tooth brush and hair brush. He also bought her some fun things too like a stuffed bear and some chocolate. Later on when she was ready to leave the hospital, he would get some clothes for her.

He reached her room and entered slowly not knowing if she was sleeping or awake. He realized that she was sleeping. Carefully and quietly, he approached the side of her bed. He really didn't want to accidently wake her up and set off her powers causing the collar to shock her. He looked at the offending piece of metal and frowned. He really needed to figure out how to get that piece of shit off of her. Letting out a low sigh, he pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. He placed the bag of goodies onto the floor for now to give to her when she woke up. He gently pushed her long hair form her face. She seemed to enjoy the touch and moved toward his hand in her sleep. He continued to caress her head until he could see that she was beginning to wake up. He pulled his hand back gently so he wouldn't startle her. Her violet eyes fluttered opened and focused on him.

Instantly he could tell that she was happy to see him. She reached out for his hand and he complied immediately. He curled his large hand around her smaller one. He was immediately hit with her emotions. He could feel her happiness and he liked it.

" _How are you feeling?"_ He asked her in his mind.

She gave him a small smile.

" _Much better, a new Doctor came to see me today she changed my pain medication and gave me some antibiotics. She was much nicer than the other doctor was._ " She replied, her voice soft inside of his head.

Hearing that caused him to smile, that meant that the dipshits in charge of her care actually did what he told them to do.

" _Good, here I have something for you._ " He told her inside of his head.

She looked at him curiously. He gently severed the connection and picked up the bag of goodies off of the floor. He placed the bag of goodies onto the bed in front of her and gestured for her to look inside of it. She looked at him a little unsurely, it was clear that she hadn't received anything in so long that she couldn't believe that somebody actually got HER something. This was something he vowed to change too. She deserved to be spoiled. He watched her hesitantly look in the bag. As she started to go through the contents of the bag, her happiness seemed to increase. She pulled out the chocolate and the stuffed bear. She looked at him with a cross between shock and excitement. It was very clear that it had been quite sometime since she had chocolate or a stuffed animal. The look on her face morphed from a cross between shock and excitement to genuine gratefulness. Looking at him with unshed tears in her violet eyes, she held out her hand for him to take. He wasted no time in taking her small hand in his larger one.

" _Thank you so very much! Chocolate is my favorite, I can't remember the last time I had some."_ She murmured inside of his head _._

He gave her a gentle look and stroked her small hand with his thumb. She looked a little surprised at the touch but didn't pull away.

" _You're welcome, sweetness._ " He thought back to her.

Suddenly, he could feel that she had become a little shy. He thought it was adorable. Whether it was from the pet name or the small touch he didn't know. He was very happy that she was becoming a lot comfortable around him. She looked at him with a small smile on her face. She momentarily severed their connection so she could open the chocolate. After she did so, she touched his hand again.

" _Would you like some_?" She asked softly.

His blue-green eyes softened at the question. This poor sweet girl had been through hell and back. She had absolutely nothing to her name and when she finally gets something that belongs to her she wants to share it with him. He wondered what kind of sick pile of shit could find so much enjoyment in causing her so much pain. God, he wanted to find these people and end them so badly. Knowing that his thoughts were going down a bad road, he dispelled them as quickly as he could. He did NOT want her to feel all of his negative emotions. Instead, he smiled back at her softly.

" _Sure, I would love some._ " He told her softly.

Without severing the connection this time, they shared the chocolate in silence. They simply relayed different emotions back and forth to each other. It felt interesting to say the least but he found that he enjoyed it immensely. He gaze drifted back to the collar around her neck, he just couldn't help it. There had to be some way to get the stupid thing off of her. He decided that the next time he visited her that he would bring his tools and see if he could get it off of her himself. It couldn't hurt to try. Suddenly, their bubble of solitude was popped when an orderly entered her room with a new tray of food and took her old one away. She looked at the food and wrinkled her little nose at it.

" _This is too much food for me to eat in a day._ " She complained.

He gave her a look. She needed all the nutrition she could get. She was still skin and bones.

" _Sweetness, you're still just skin and bones. You need to eat it._ " He coaxed gently.

Reluctantly, he severed their connection and got up to go retrieve the tray of food. He brought the tray of food back and carefully set it in front of her. He was still very careful with every movement he made so he wouldn't startle her. She looked at the tray of food in front of her and then stuck her tongue out at him playfully. It caused him to chuckle a little bit. He was happy to see that she was coming out of her shell even if it was just a little bit. Suddenly her entire demeanor shifted. She back away from him suddenly very frightened and wondered just what in the hell was going on until the light bulb went on inside of this head. Did she think he would punish her for sticking her tongue out at him? Getting her to realize that he would never ever hurt her was going to be harder than he first thought. He placed hands in the surrender position and approached her carefully. His heart clenched painfully, she looked so terrified.

"Charlie, it's okay I promise you that I will never hurt you ever." He intoned softly, praying that she would believe him.

He could see she wanted to believe him so badly but it was just so hard for her to let go of something she was conditioned to think. Using slow and precise movements, he caressed the top of her head gently and soothingly. Slowly, he moved to the side of her face and caressed there too. Finally, she calmed down some and placed her small hand on top of his.

" _I'm so sorry._ " She murmured softly inside of his head.

He could feel her shame and embarrassment. He looked at her softly.

" _Oh sweetness, it's okay._ " He murmured softly back to her.

He felt her emotions shift from shame and embarrassment to relief. It was clear that she was scared that she would do something that would make him leave her permanently. This was something he would never ever do no matter what she did. He would help her to learn to trust him no matter how long it took. He tried to relay trusting emotions through their connection and she calmed down a lot more. Satisfied that she was calm, he nudged the tray of food closer to her and looked at her expectantly.

" _Now, you better eat your food before it gets too cold."_ He coaxed again.

She gave him a look but complied with his wishes.

This time she reluctantly severed their connection and started picking at the food on the tray. As she picked away at her food, they sat in a companionable silence. Pretty soon he could tell that she was getting tired again. When she finished eating, he got up and moved the food tray out her way. Then he helped her get comfortable in the bed being careful not to mess with her IV too much and aggravate her sores in any way. Placing the stuffed bear next to her in the bed, he pulled up covers all around her and made sure that she was comfortable. Her small hand latched onto his shirt and she looked up at with a look in her big violet eyes that he was beginning to know well. She was asking him to stay with her until she fell asleep. He knew that he would never be able to deny her that. He sat back down in the chair next to her bed. Gently and slowly, he brought his hand to the top of her and caressed it. She unconsciously flinched a little at his touch and he suppressed a frown. He hoped as she got more used to his touch, those reflexes would diminish in time. He stayed with her until her eyes grew heavy and she fell asleep.

Satisfied that she was out like a light, he got up from the chair and picked up the bag of toiletries. He left the chocolate where it was in case she wanted it when she woke up again. He went into her small bathroom and deposited all of the toiletries on the counter to they were there for her to used when she needed them. Exiting the bathroom, he took one last look at her before he left the room. She was now sleeping soundly and clinging to the teddy bear he bought her. His blue-green eyes softened at the sight. 19 years old or not, she was still just a little girl who still needed looking after in many ways. He decided he would bring her more goodies the next time he came to see her.

Quietly, he left the room and headed back to his own room. He entered the small space and flipped on the lights. Immediately, he eyes zeroed in on his laptop, Charlie's files and the small black USB stick that sat on top of them. He hadn't quite had the guts to see what was on the memory stick yet. But he supposed now was as good a time as any. This time instead of putting on some coffee, he grabbed a beer from his fridge and searched his junk drawer for a bottle opener. Coming up victorious, he sat down at his table and opened his bottle of beer. He knew that whatever was on that USB stick, he was going to need something a lot stronger than coffee to deal with it. Taking a large swig of his beer and placing it on the table next to himself, he plugged the USB stick into his laptop and turned it on. Opening it up, he saw that there were several folders full of files being stored on it and they were all nameless. Seeing as none of them had names, he just picked a folder at random and saw that it was filled with video files. He clicked one on one of the video files and sorely wished he hadn't.

The video was of Charlie in the cage her handlers must have kept her in when she wasn't out on a 'mission'. She was signing softly to herself. This must have been filmed not long after she was first abducted. Of course she had the piece of shit collar around her neck but she looked a hell of a lot healthier. He could tell that this video must have been just after they abducted her and before they did any of the 'procedures' on her. He watched completely horrified as two large men approached the side of her cage. He could see that she realized very quickly that something very bad was about to happen to her. The two men entered her cage and held her in place. She put up a hell of a fight but they were much stronger than her. A third man came into to view. He was much shorter than the other two. It was clear that he was the 'brains' behind the operation. He saw that the short little man held a knife in one hand and something else in the other hand behind his back.

He approached the cage with purpose and spoke in a low, chilling voice.

" _It seems our subject still has some fight left in her. It's time to change that."_ The short man said _._

Charlie watched the man with absolute fear in her violet eyes. He opened the cage and approached her. In a last ditch afforded to protect herself, her powers exploded to life but all that did was cause the collar to come to life and shock her repeatedly. The short man laughed darkly and pulled something from behind his back. He realized it was a key. He jammed it into the side of the collar and it fell uselessly to the ground. She looked at him in shock momentarily until he pulled the other hand from behind his back to reveal the knife. Her shock morphed into horror as soon as she saw the knife. The short man brought the knife to her throat and he couldn't force himself to watch what was about to take place. After it was over, the short man spoke once more.

" _My little lightfire, I hope that will teach you not to disobey me now won't it? I told you to cut that infernal racket out and you refused to listen to me. Now I hope you won't disobey me again now will you? That's my good girl."_ He short man stated darkly.

" _You two, clean her up and get that collar back onto her. We have a lot of work to do; she will be our perfect weapon yet!_ " He added, addressing his goon friends.

After that, the video ended. He couldn't believe what he just witnessed and that was just the first video. He could only imagine what he would find in the other ones. He was so mad that he wanted to destroy his entire apartment but he forced himself not to because all it would do was make a huge mess that he would have to clean up later. They didn't just take away her voice to stop her from singing; they did it to destroy her will to fight. Then they inserted the control chip into her brain so they could control her like a damn robot those sick fucks. He slammed his laptop lid shut and started pacing his apartment. He wanted nothing more than to end those assholes and when he did find them he would take great pleasure in doing it. It was no wonder that Charlie didn't want to tell him why she couldn't speak. He ran his hands through his messy, short blond locks, he was going to have to show her these videos some day and he was not looking forward to it. Not only did he have that to worry about but he knew how she lost her voice before she had the chance to tell him. How in the hell would he deal with that?

He plopped back down into his chair and let out a soft sigh. He supposed he would deal with that when the time came.

As for right now, he had one mission and one mission only, to look after Charlie. She was his to protect now and he would be damned if he let anything bad happen to her ever again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	5. Making Progress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Here is another chapter good to go! I just gotta thank everybody for all the Kudos(s) and subscriptions that this story has gotten so far! It makes me so happy to see that people are enjoying this story!

_Clint_

Whistling to himself, Clint moved boxes around his new bigger apartment. Getting it had been much easier than he thought it was going to be. Coulson hadn't had any issue with it the only thing he had to put up with was Tony's questioning about the whole damn thing. It was super frustrating but he needed the apartment so damn badly that he put up with it. He only gave Tony the short version of what happened with Charlie because nobody needed to know all of the gory details yet. He only told Tony enough to make even him understand why he needed more space and it worked thankfully. He continued to sort and put away things until he was satisfied with how everything looked. He did this for each room until he reached the empty second bedroom. This was the room that he wanted to set up for Charlie when she got out of the hospital. He had went out and bought a few necessities for it but he wanted Charlie to be the one to decorate most of it how SHE wanted. For so long now, she had no control over anything in her life and he wanted to change that. He wanted her to have complete control over this room and make it how she wanted it to be. When he took her to get clothes and more things when she got out of the hospital, he decided he would let her choose more décor for her room at that time too.

As he turned away from Charlie's room, his awareness suddenly exploded to life. Again, he knew that Charlie needed him but this felt different from the first time. His awareness was not acting the same way it did the last time that this happened. Forgetting about what he was doing, he immediately left his apartment and ran to the medical wing as fast as he could. He entered Charlie's room and was shocked at the sight in front of her. She was thrashing in her bed clearly stuck in a nightmare. How she hadn't alerted a bunch of medical personnel he didn't know. His heart broke for her. Before he could even get to the side of her bed, her powers tried to activate and the collar immediately filled its sick purpose. It tried to shock the shit out of her and she let out a distorted pain-filled noise.

' _Fucking shit, this is NOT good!_ ' He thought with worry.

Normally, he knew better than to wake somebody in the middle of a nightmare but normal people didn't have an electrified collar strapped around their necks and weren't mutants. He had to do something fast.

"Charlie baby, wake up!" He yelled, giving her left shoulder a hard shake.

He didn't particularly like doing this but gentleness wouldn't work in this situation. He needed to wake her up now. He gave her shoulder another hard shake and her big violet eyes popped open suddenly. It was very clear that even though she was awake she wasn't herself at all; he could tell that she had no idea where she was. He didn't need to be connected to her to see that she was petrified. Her pupils were completely dilated with fear. He wondered if this wasn't a side-effect of being shot so many damn times in the head with silver bullets. Just thinking of that threatened to set his anger off. Immediately he started thinking of all the ways he wanted to kill the assholes responsible for all of this bullshit. He sighed; he had to forget about that for now. Charlie was far more important and she needed him. Using the slow, precise movements he always used when trying to approach her, he gently touched the top of her head. It was enough to turn her attention onto him but it was painfully clear that she still didn't remember him. She backpedaled as far away from him as she could. He could see the complete terror in those beautiful violet eyes of hers. He felt his heart crack open at the sight of her so afraid of him.

"Charlie." He murmured softly.

He reached out once more to caress the top of her head. She shied away from the touch and he tried to hide how upset it made him. He knew that it wasn't her fault and that she wasn't herself but it still bothered him greatly.

"Charlie, sweetness, it's me Clint. You have to try really hard to remember me, alright?" He tried again, praying that she would start to recognize his voice.

She momentarily froze and cocked her head to the side at the sound of his voice. He could tell that she was trying so hard to recognize him. She shook her head from side to side trying to get rid of the fuzz inside of her head. She sniffed the air and then it was like somebody flicked some kind of switch. She began to calm down and her eyes returned to normal. Finally she began to return to herself, she blinked a few times and it was as if she realized just now that he was standing in front of her. She looked at him with confusion for a moment and then she began to work out in her head what just took place. Her look of confusion morphed into devastation and horror. Immediately, she tried to come to him and touch his hand. He could feel her shifting emotions and something else. Well this was new; it was like she was trying to 'show' him things inside of his head. He had a feeling there was much, much more to her powers than anybody knew. She probably tried to keep as many things from her handlers as she could so they couldn't be used against her. Form what she was trying to show him, she was scared that she would lose control of her powers somehow and really hurt him or wake up from another nightmare and not remember him or who she was. His heart broke for her. He would do anything he could to make it better.

"Oh sweetness, I promise you I won't let that happen." He intoned softly.

She gave him a look with such emotion behind it. Gently he coaxed her closer to himself making sure that he was careful of her healing sores and the IV in her arm. Slowly and carefully, he wrapped his arms around her making sure not to startle her. For a moment, she froze completely shocked by his gesture not quite sure what to do and then she melted into him. He could feel her shaking against them and then she started sobbing hard racking sobs. Clearly, this was four years of toxic pent up emotions finally being released. He wasted no time in rocking her gently and cooing to her until she began to calm down and her sobs turned into small hiccups. After she calmed a great deal more, she reached for his hand once more.

" _I'm so sorry."_ She murmured inside of his head.

Looking at her, his blue-green eyes softened considerably.

" _Oh Charlie, you have nothing to apologize for._ " He reassured her.

Feeling her emotions through the connection, he knew that she was getting tired and it was time to get her back into bed. Gently, he tried to detach himself from her and she made a tiny little distorted noise of protest which he thought was completely endearing.

" _Come on now, you need to get back into bed_ " He chuckled.

She gave him a little pout but did as she was asked. She let him help her back into bed. Giving her a gentle look, he sought her permission to check her sores to make sure they hadn't been aggravated in the commotion of her nightmare. She hesitated for a moment and then gave him a small nod indicating that he had her permission to check them. Before he pulled the sheets up, he moved her gown up just enough to get a look at her sores. From what he saw, it looked like they were healing pretty well. He could tell her healing factor must be still messed up from being so malnourished because he knew that they should be far more healed than they were but all things considering they looked pretty damn good. He was happy that he didn't have to get Dr. Margie to come look at them. While he had no problem with Dr. Margie, there was many a time where she would put him back together after a mission gone wrong or right. That was why he asked her to look after Charlie's care in the first place. He just didn't want to cause Charlie any more unnecessary stress. Satisfied that her sores looked good, he pulled her gown back down and pulled the sheets up around her. Looking to the floor, he saw that the stuffed bear that he bought Charlie was lying next to the foot of bed upside down. It must have fallen down there at some point when she was stuck in the nightmare. He reached down and plucked the bear off of the floor and placed back next to her in the bed. He watched with affection as she grabbed the bear and cuddled it closer to herself. Again, couldn't help but think how young she still really was and how much she still needed somebody to care for and look after her. He felt a surge of protectiveness jolt through him. He knew that it was his job now and he would let nobody else do it.

For a while, he and Charlie sat in companionable silence. It was clear that she wasn't quite ready to go to sleep yet and he had no problem just sitting quietly with her. As he did so, his mind began to wander a bit on him. He had to admit that he really wanted to know what her nightmare was about. Perhaps if he could coax her to tell him, it would help her to start trusting him even more than she did now. He knew that she was already leaps and bounds better when it came to trusting him not to hurt her. Hell, not only did she let him hug her while she sobbed her heart out, she also let him check her sores. He knew that those things were huge for her. But he wanted to help her make even more progress. Gently, he curled his large hand around her small one and she looked at him questioningly.

" _Sweetness, I know that isn't going to be easy for you but could you tell me what was in your nightmare?_ " He asked softly.

Her violet eyes became large and he could tell right away that she wanted to tell him 'no' but she hesitated. He knew that she was fighting with herself. He knew part of her wanted so badly to tell him but she was fighting so hard against her instincts. After a few minutes of mulling it over in her head, she gave him a small nod.

_Charlie_

Charlie couldn't BELIEVE what she was about to do. She couldn't remember last time she actually told anybody anything and here she was just about ready to tell Clint something very horrible that happened to her. In her nightmare, she had actually been reliving a really bad memory that happened to her shortly after the chip in her head began to malfunction for the very first time. After she was shot in the head with the silver bullets, it took her quite a while to regain her senses. Her handlers decided to have a little 'fun' with her while she was trying to regain her senses. This was when Victor was still around. During this time when they worked together on 'missions', he considered her to be his 'pet' and like to remind her frequently of the fact that she belonged to him. They never stopped to think of what might happen if Victor found them playing with something that he considered to be 'his'. The end result was not very pretty at all.

She didn't know how she would tell Clint about the memory but she knew that she had to do it; she couldn't keep going on the way she was despite what her instincts were screaming at her to do. Clint had been nothing but kind and caring to her so far and was time to repay him by trying to learn how to trust him. She let him hug her while she clung to him and sobbed her heart out, she let him check her sores and she knew that she could trust him enough to begin telling him what happened to her while she was in that hell hole. She was under his protection after all, he told her so. Deep down she knew that he cared about her and no matter what she told him he would never ever reject her.

She let out a deep breath that she didn't even realize she had been holding. She gave his hand a small little squeeze. Looking straight into his ocean eyes, she began to speak to him through the connection softly. She told him the entire memory from beginning to end.

_Memory_

_Lying in the bottom of her cage, Charlie let out a long groan. Her head was killing her. She reached up and rubbed it. She couldn't remember exactly what happened, only that she tried to lunge at one of her stupid handlers and then nothing. Her handlers consisted for a short man who she hated with a passion of a million burning suns and then two goons. The short man was the brains behind the whole operation. She didn't know who he was, she only knew him by his voice and the fact that he always made her do things that made her hurt a lot. His two goons were the muscle behind the operation and they were complete and total morons. She couldn't really remember what happened but she knew one of them must have started picking at her and she must have snapped on him. She had failed her 'mission' pretty badly and knew that the short man was already mad at her. He must have shot her in the head with silver bullets to 'reset' her. She wondered how she still remembered who she was. He had told her once that if he ever had to shoot her in the head with the silver bullets that she wouldn't remember who she was when she woke up. While she didn't remember a lot of things, she did know who she was and her handlers. Maybe it had something to do with the other mutations inside of her._

_Her sensitive hearing picked up the two idiot goons nearing her cage and she immediately started panicking. She barely had any movement from just being shot in the brain and no way to activate her mutation to protect herself without being shocked. She was so screwed and she knew it. One of them opened her cage and they both stepped. One of them started talking._

" _Gee, she sure is nice to look at. It's too bad we can't have any fun with her." One of the goons said._

_The other goon responded to the first goon._

" _Well, who says we can't? What the boss doesn't know can't hurt him." The other goon responded with an evil chuckle._

_Before anything could happen, her sensitive sense of smell picked up something that smelled a lot like her and she knew that Victor was coming. This whole situation was about to get real ugly real fast. Victor entered the room and she could sense and smell the fear of the two goons. It was just leaking from their pores._

" _Victor, what're you doing here?" One of the goons asked._

_A low growl emanated from Victor and she felt the goons fear spike even more._

" _I should be asking you that. Why are you two poking your fat head where they don't belong?" Victor growled lowly._

_The two goons hesitated for a moment before one of them worked up the courage to answer him._

" _Oh come on Victor we were just having a little look see. We didn't even touch her." The braver of the two goons replied._

_She inwardly winced. They really were a couple of idiots. You don't talk back to somebody who can squish you into the ground with one fist. She knew what was coming and it wasn't going to be pretty. She whimpered. She couldn't even turn away from it. Victor seemed to sense this and turned his attention to her for a moment. She could feel his dark cat like eyes boring into her and it was beginning to unnerve her. Finally he moved towards her and crouched down in front of her. She felt him stroke his thumb along her back and she let out another whimper._

" _Shh, little pet, this is something your eyes should not have to see." He growled lowly into her ear._

_With uncharacteristic gentleness that she didn't even think he was capable of possessing, he turned her so she was facing the other direction. She didn't know how being turned in the other direction was going to help her when she could still smell and hear everything. She would just have to block it out the best that she could. Suddenly, he was gone and she knew that he was back in front of the two idiot goons. Victor let out a deep, low growl and she could hear the two goons yelling. She began to hear movement and she knew that the two goons were trying to run for their lives but it was useless. She could hear Victor pouncing like a giant wild cat then the sound of human bones breaking followed by a lot of squelching. She continued to try and block it out the best she could. The breaking of bones and squelching soon became punctuated by the smell of blood and human waste. She shuddered and tried not to gag. Then it was over and there was nothing but silence._

_Suddenly, she began to hear footsteps and despite of the nasty smells in the air she still managed to pick up the scent of the short man._

" _Victor! What is the meaning of this? Why must you continuously kill my men?" The short man asked with frustration in his low voice._

_Victor let out a low angry snarl and for the first time she thought that she could smell a bit of fear on the short man._

" _Why must your men continuously try and take what is mine?" Victor snarled back._

_There was a pregnant pause and then the short man spoke once more. It was clear that the fear that she thought she smelt on him was gone as quickly as it came._

" _Tch, fine just clean your mess up and get your 'pet' ready for her next mission. You are wasting my precious time!" He ordered darkly._

_End Memory_

After she finished telling him the memory, she looked away from him scared of what she would see if she looked him in those beautiful ocean eyes of his. Using the gentle movements that she was now beginning to associate with him, he forced her to look him in the eyes. She knew that he could feel her shame and fear though the connection that they shared. He caressed the side of her face and she found that she actually enjoyed the gentle touch. For the first time, she wasn't afraid of it at all. He was looking at her with nothing but kindness and understanding.

" _Oh Charlie, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I promise you things will be much better from now on."_ He murmured reassuringly.

At him telling her that, her instincts were screaming at her not to believe him even though she knew that he was telling her the truth.

" _Are you sure about that?"_ She couldn't help but ask him.

He gave her a soft reassuring look that she found that she really liked.

" _Oh honey, I'm most definitely sure of that and I will find a way to prove it you."_ He replied without hesitation.

She wondered just how he was going to do that when those beautiful ocean eyes of his landed on her stupid metal collar and she couldn't help but wonder.

Could he really get it off of her?


	6. Sweet Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you all go another update hot off the press! Sorry for the hold up, trying to juggle several projects at once can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes but never fear I will never not update this story I promise you all that! As always thank you for the kudos(s) and the subscriptions! They make me so happy! Happy reading everybody!

 

 

 

_Clint_

Clint was eyeing the piece of shit collar around Charlie's neck trying to determine the best way to get it off of her. He knew that he had to be careful how he handled it, otherwise he could be shocked and he knew that would really upset Charlie. That was the last thing that he wanted to do was upset her anymore that she had already been. Gently and slowly, he moved closer to her so he could examine it a little more closely. As he did this, he was reminded of the video he watched. The short man had inserted some kind of key into the side of the collar so there had to be some kind of key hole in the side of it. Sure enough, there was a small hole in the side of the collar.

' _Jackpot!_ ' He thought to himself.

He knew without a doubt that he could pick that. He would need to get his tools though and he wasn't sure that Charlie would want him to leave her but he really wanted to get that collar off of her. Gently, he took her hand in his and gave it a small stroke. She gave him a questioning look.

' _Sweetness, I want to go and get my tools so I can get that collar off of you. Are you okay with that?'_ He asked her inside of his head softly.

He watched her hesitate for a moment and then she gave him a small nod.

' _Okay but can you please be quick?_ ' She pleaded inside of his mind.

He gave her a softened look.

' _Of course honey, I'll be as quick as I can.'_ He promised her.

She gave him a thankful look and he gently severed the connection. After making sure that she was comfortable, he got up from his chair and left her room. He quickly made his way from the hospital wing back to his apartment. Entering his apartment, he found his bag of tools and checked them to make sure that he had everything he needed. After he was sure they were all there, he went to what he delegated as his junk food cabinet and pulled out a chocolate bar that he had been keeping for Charlie. He knew that he could give that to her and keep her distracted while he worked to get the collar off of her. Satisfied that he had everything that he needed, he left his apartment and got back to the hospital wing quickly. As he got to Charlie's room, his awareness suddenly flared to life. He knew that Natasha was in Charlie's room, what was she doing in there?

He immediately became worried and entered her room. He saw that Natasha was talking with Charlie. The conversation seemed to be normal enough but he could see that that Charlie was extremely uncomfortable with the whole thing and right now Charlie's comfort came before all else.

"Natasha, what are you doing in here?" He asked trying to keep is tone curious.

Natasha smiled a smile that he didn't quite like. To everybody else it would look completely normal; to him it was a smile that was dripping with jealousy. He inwardly sighed; he knew that he would have to try and have another talk with her at some point soon.

"I was just curious about your new little friend Clint, that's all." She explained.

While he knew that she was being honest with him, he knew that she wasn't just curious about Charlie but was trying to size her up too. He was starting to get pissed off with Natasha and her stupid behavior. He wanted her to leave now.

"Alright well now that you've seen for yourself that she is just a harmless little girl you can leave now and I will have a conversation with you later." He stated in a voice that left no room for argument.

Natasha huffed but obeyed him and left the room. He knew that he could be just as scary when he was really pissed off as she could. He inwardly let out a sigh. He really wondered if there would be anything left of his and Natasha's relationship by the time this was all said and done. No matter what she did or said, he knew that he would never ever be able to just abandon Charlie like everybody else did to her. She was his now whether Natasha liked it or not. She reached out to him and he wasted no time in placing his bag of tools onto the floor. He sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand in his.

' _Is helping me just messing everything up for you?'_ She asked him seriously.

Immediately, he could feel his anger escalating at the question. Just what in the hell had Natasha told her?

' _Oh baby no, you are not messing up everything for me I promise you that. I choose to look after you and will never take that choice back.'_ He murmured to her reassuringly.

He could tell she was getting a little worked up so he let his free hand stroke the top of her head and the side of her face. He was so unbelievably pissed off at Natasha right now but he let it go for the time being. He had way more important things to look after at the moment. He wanted to get that collar off of her. After he felt that she had calmed down enough, he separated from her for a moment and picked up his bag full of tools. He watched her eye the tools warily. He picked her little hand up and was quick to explain what he was going to do with them.

' _Shh Charlie, I know the tools look scary but they really aren't. I want to pick the lock on your collar. That vile man who put the collar on you had a key for it right? Well, these tools will sort act like the key would. This way the collar shouldn't hurt either of us._ ' He explained softly.

Suddenly, he remembered the chocolate bar he that had for Charlie. Gently, he let go of her hand and pulled out the chocolate bar. He could tell that the chocolate made Charlie extremely happy. He gave her the chocolate bar and was happy to see that it was doing it's job and distracting her very well. As she munched away on the chocolate, he placed his tool bag onto the bed. He organized his tools exactly how he wanted them and got to work. He made sure that his movements remained slow and precise so that he wouldn't freak her out at all because he knew that this was still very scary for her. He picked out a sharp tool and began to work at the lock. Each time he felt the defense mechanism try to activate, he would stop what he was doing. He had to change tools several times but he could tell he was very close to getting the stupid thing off of her. Suddenly, he hit something and it caused the collar to let loose an electrical shock. He jumped and let out a few choice swear words. Okay, so that really sucked. He could see that Charlie was very upset that he got hurt. His blue eyes softened. He stopped what he was doing for a moment and grabbed her small hand in his.

' _It's okay Charlie; I promise you I'm okay. It scared me more than anything._ ' He reassured her.

It took her a minute to believe him but she finally nodded and calmed down enough for him to resume his work.

' _Okay, but please be careful.'_ She murmured back.

He gave her a reassuring look and nodded. He got back to work and continued to pick at the lock. Sure enough, he finally heard the clicking sound he was looking for and the collar fell uselessly from her neck onto the bed between her legs. She looked at him with huge violet eyes. He knew that she couldn't believe that he managed to get it off of her. His blue-green eyes traveled to her neck and he had to suck in a breath at what he saw. She had a huge angry gash that went from one end of her neck to the other. He could tell possibly from being stuck in that collar for so long that it never got the chance to heal very well. Looking at the large, angry, wound, he felt his anger try to spike out of control and he tamped it down. It would do Charlie no good if he freaked out no matter how much he wanted to. Knowing that he was staring that the large, angry gash on her neck, Charlie became self-conscious and tried to turn away but he stopped her gently. He gave her a gentle, reassuring look and curled her small hand in his larger one.

' _Oh Charlie, you have nothing to be self-conscious about. It's just a scar, I don't care about it."_ He soothed softly.

She looked at him sort of incredulously.

' _You…you don't think I'm…It's ugly?'_ She asked incredulously.

His heart broke open for Charlie all over again. It made him so upset that she considered herself ugly. Whether she believed it or not, she was beautiful.

' _Of course I don't think you're ugly. I think you are beautiful and the scar is just part of who you are. You are beautiful sweetheart, don't think any differently ever._ ' He murmured softly to her, stroking his thumb along her little hand.

Even though she was still having great difficulty believing what he said, he accepted what he said thankfully. Letting go of her hand briefly, he picked up the piece of shit collar and threw it in his bag of tools. He wanted Bruce and Tony to take a look at it. Maybe something from it could be traced back to the assholes that put her through this shit in the first place. Turning his attention back to her fully, he could see that she was getting tired and that this took a lot out of her. She had come such a long way but she still fatigued so easily. He threw out the chocolate bar wrapper and put his bag of tools away. He helped her get comfortable in her bed and pulled the sheets up around her. He also made sure that he had the stuffed bear that he bought for her was close by. Sitting in his chair next to her bed, he took her hand in his and began to sooth her until he saw that those big violet eyes of hers were beginning to get heavy. He stayed with her until she fell asleep and then quietly got up from his chair. He picked up his bag of tools and left the room.

He just couldn't wait for the time to come when he didn't have to visit her in this crappy place anymore.

4 Weeks Later

_Charlie_

For the first time in her life, Charlie felt excited about something. She was finally getting discharged from the hospital and she couldn't be more excited. Clint told her that he had set her up her very own room in his apartment and she was so excited to see it. Currently, in the bathroom putting all the toiletries that Clint had gotten her and a little pink bag that he brought for her. It felt so good to be able to move around freely without her sores hurting or the IV pole getting in her way. As she continued to shove things into the bag, she caught her refection in the mirror and frowned. Even though Clint reassured her over again that she was beautiful, she still felt so self-conscious about the scar on her neck. She hated the way it looked but she supposed that it was just something that was a part of her now and that she would have to work at letting go of it. As Clint continously told her, she couldn't let her past dictate her future. She finished stuffing all the toiletries into her bag and left the bathroom.

She went to the bed and grabbed her stuffed bear. She shoved it into her bag with everything else that Clint bought for her. She owed Clint so much and would spend the rest of her life trying to pay him no matter what he told her. Sniffing the air gently, she picked up his clean scent and knew that he was coming to get her now. She couldn't help the smile filtered onto her features; she couldn't wait to get out of this icky smelling place. Clint entered the room and smiled at her warmly.

"Well look at you my girl! Are you read to get out of this place?" He asked happily.

She nodded excitedly.

"Good! I take it you don't want to leave here dressed in a hospital gown do you?" He laughed.

She gave him a look but nodded. No, she didn't particularly want to leave this place in a hospital gown. She watched with curiosity as he pulled a bag of…something from behind his back. He gave it to her and she looked inside of it. She was shocked to see that it was full of clothes. She looked back up at Clint with curiosity written all over her features. Where in the world did Clint get these clothes? She could tell that he knew what she was wondering. Over the past few weeks, she and Clint seemed to have developed their own form of communication besides talking inside of his head. It was really weird and interesting.

"I got the clothes from a good agent friend; she picked them out for me." He explained.

She continued to look at him funny and it took him no time at all to realize what the issue was.

"Oh Charlie, I promise you it wasn't Natasha, don't worry. Her name is Maria Hill, I would rather a girl who knows what they are doing pick you out some clothes than try to pick them out myself." He elaborated, looking a little embarrassed.

She found his embarrassment to be quite adorable. She smiled and nodded satisfied with his answer. Ever since Natasha had to come to talk to her all those weeks ago, she had decided that she wasn't very fond of her. She asked her all sorts of questions pertaining to how she liked Clint. It made her very uncomfortable and she just reeked of jealousy which she found completely stupid considering that Clint was her guardian and care giver not whatever she thought was going on. She put those thoughts out of her head not wanting them to ruin her day. Smiling at him one last time, she took the bag of clothes into the bathroom with her to change into them. She was shocked to see that there was everything she needed into the bag right down to a bra and a pair of undies. Now it was her turn to be embarrassed, she was extremely grateful that Clint didn't try and pick these things out himself.

She put on the undergarments and was shocked that they seemed to fit okay, she found a shirt and jeans in the bag and put them on too. She was happy to see that they were pretty plain and fit pretty well. As she continued to sift through the contents of the bag, she pulled out a pair of white socks and a pair of black converse all-star hi tops. She couldn't believe those were in there! She hadn't seen such shoes in so long, converse were her favorites. She really did owe Clint so much. She put the shoes on and looked in the bag to make sure she hadn't missed anything. She was shocked to see hair-ties. He even got the agent to pick up some hair ties to keep her unruly hair out of the way if she wanted. She looked at the scar on her neck and sighed. She wanted to put her hair up but she was scared it would draw more attention to her stupid neck. Again, she reminded herself of what Clint constantly told her. That she was beautiful and her scar didn't matter. She couldn't be that scared little girl forever and had to start doing what she wanted to do. She decided to throw her hair up in a messy ponytail.

Satisfied with her appearance, she put the rest of the hair ties back into the bag and exited the bathroom. When Clint saw her, he smiled and that made her feel really good.

"I can't imagine how much better that feels." He smiled warmly.

She smiled back and nodded to him. She grabbed his hand so she could talk to him in his mind.

' _It feels much better! Thank you so much for the shoes, I love them!_ ' She told him happily.

He gave her an affectionate look.

' _You're welcome, sweetness.'_ He told her softly.

Severing their connection gently, she picked up her pink bag and put the bag of hair ties inside of it. She hoisted the bag onto her shoulder and then grabbed his hand once more. She looked at him and tugged on it a little bit indicating that she wanted to leave the room. He chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Alright, alright, let's get out of here." He chuckled.

Together they left the room, unfortunately before they could leave the hospital wing all together they had to make a stop at the reception desk so Clint could check her out and she was not happy about that but she put up with it. As Clint checked her out, it felt like everybody was staring at her and she hated it. Thankfully Clint finished up quickly and they were able to leave the hospital wing. They walked in a companionable silence to Clint's apartment. Halfway there, she picked up on a familiar scent and held back a small distorted growl. Natasha was somewhere nearby, she had no idea why but Natasha seemed to be really setting off the feral part of her mutation. It wasn't in a mate way or anything like that; it was something else that she didn't know what it was just yet. She felt her other mutations try to activate too. She tried really hard to put them away. Since Clint managed to get the collar off of her, the mutations inside of her seemed to have acquired a mind of their own. It was probably because the collar controlled them for so long that she had forgotten how to. She hoped that Clint would be able to help her fix that problem. She could see that Clint knew that Natasha was there too and that she needed to get out of the situation fast. Thankfully, he led her away quickly.

He looked at her with a bit of worry and squeezed her hand in his.

' _Are you alright, sweetness?_ ' He asked her with a hint of worry.

Once she calmed herself down a bit, she nodded at him softly.

' _I am now, um, sorry about that.'_ She murmured inside of his head.

He gave her a tender look and caressed the top of her head.

' _You have nothing to be sorry for Charlie. Now let's get you home._ ' He murmured back to her.

She couldn't help the feelings that jolted through her system at the word 'home'. She hadn't had one of those is so, so long.

For the first time since she could remember, she tasted sweet freedom and it felt so good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	7. Darkfire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello everybody! Here is a new chapter already to go! Hopefully you all like it! Again my apologies for the hold up! Working on three projects at once is no cakewalk! Here's hoping you all like it! Thank you for all your kudos(s) and subscriptions and bookmarks if you all could keep it up I would muchly appreciate that!
> 
> Note: Just so everybody is aware this is a slight trigger warning in this chapter. Nothing too descriptive of course but I figured I should say something!
> 
> Happy reading everybody!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!

 

 

_Charlie_

It had been a whole four weeks since Charlie had been discharged from the hospital and over all she couldn't be happier with how she felt and how her life was now. It felt so good that she finally had somebody who truly and actually cared about her no matter what she did. She had to admit that there were times where things weren't easy but Clint was always there to help her through it. She was currently in the kitchen preparing dinner. It turned out that Clint wasn't that great of a cook but that didn't matter because she loved cooking. It was one of things that managed to stay with her no matter what her handlers tried to do with her mind. She sighed and gave her pasta sauce a stir. She hadn't had pasta in so long and she was craving it badly.

She let out another small, slightly distorted sigh and adjusted her sweat pants again. She currently had on a tank top and sweat pants. She was trying so hard to be more comfortable with her body but it was so hard. She was still very skinny and was full of scars. She let out a long sigh and tried to get her mind onto something else. Cooking reminded her of school, while she didn't remember a whole lot from that time in her life but she did remember being very happy there. She also remembered stealing cooking duties from people because she enjoyed it so much. She continued to sift through what little of her memories that she had left. Everything was so scrambled from being shot in the head so many times. The only other thing that she could vaguely remember was that there was one person in particular the she was close to but she couldn't really remember any more than that. She shook her head, even though she couldn't remember much she knew that she had been happy there so why didn't they try and find her? Why did they abandon her just like that?

She decided that she didn't want to think about that anymore because it was upsetting her too much. Instead, she concentrated on her pasta once more. She drained the pasta she had cooking on the stove along with the sauce and then dumped it into the frying pan with the sauce. As she was doing this, she sniffed the air gently. She could smell Clint's clean scent over the food and knew that he would be back soon. She could smell something else mixed in with Clint's scent and this caused her to frown deeply. This was the third time this week that he came back from training with some kind of injury. She immediately felt her feral mutation try to claw its way to the surface. He was the closest thing to family that she had and her feral instincts were screaming at her that she needed to keep him protected. She tried to tamp it down the best she could.

She had been trying so desperately to control her mutations better. So far she had gotten a pretty good handle on the feral part of her mutation so far but unfortunately the rest of it was a work in progress. Her ability to conjure white energy depended greatly on her emotions. When she felt good emotions it was far easier to conjure and control. When she felt negative emotions, it was so much harder to control. If the emotions got intense enough, something happened to her. The energy inside of her would change and become dark. It was completely chaotic and uncontrollable. This was something her handlers tried to bring out in her and she hated it. They called it 'darkfire.' She hated it and only hoped it would never come out around Clint.

Clint walked into the apartment and that caused her to snap out of her thoughts. He smiled at her and she wasted no time in going to him.

_Clint_

Clint smiled when he saw that Charlie was preparing dinner. That was one thing that had improved greatly since she started living with him. Cooking had never been his strong suite but it turned out Charlie was great at it. She didn't mind doing it either, she told him that cooking for him was the least she could do for everything that he's done for her so far. No matter what he told her, she would never accept that she didn't have to do anything for him but he would take her cooking over what he was eating before any day of the week. She placed her wooden spoon in her pan of pasta and wasted no time in coming to him. She had a look on her face that indicated to him that she could smell that he was injured, oh shit. She gently grabbed his hand and looked at him with big violet eyes.

' _Clint, you're hurt again!'_ She murmured softly inside of his head.

He sighed internally; he hated it when she looked at him like that. He tried to reassure her that he was okay.

' _Sweetness, I promise that I am fine. It's just a little bruise, it'll heal fast.'_ He murmured back to her.

He caressed the top of her head and she let out a contented purr but it wasn't enough to distract her from the fact that he was hurt. She gently severed the connection with him and lifted his shirt so she could inspect the damage. He had a pretty good sized painful and colorful looking bruised on his side. He watched her suck in a breath at sight of it and frowned at the upset look that formed on her face. He continued caress the top of her head hoping it would help to calm her and distract her from the bruise. He had no such luck.

"Charlie, honey, it's just a bruise I promise you that it looks worse than it is _._ " He intoned softly.

He finally got her to relent and she nodded. She grabbed his hand gave it a gentle tug. He knew that she wanted to show him what she cooked. He let her lead him to where her frying pan of pasta sat. He had to admit that it smelt good, so much better than what he used to eat before she came to live with him. She looked so proud of what she cooked; he found it to be completely adorable. He helped her serve up her food and together they went to sit down at his kitchen table. They ate in a companionable silence until reached out and gently rested his larger hand on top of her smaller one. He wanted to ask her if she wanted to look at ordering more stuff for her bedroom online. She still wasn't quite ready to venture out in public yet and that was completely okay with him. He preferred saying in and ordering things online than going out into public anyway. At his touch, she looked up at him curiously.

' _Say Charlie, how would you like to look for more things for your room after we finish eating?'_ He asked her curiously.

She smiled happily at the suggestion.

' _I would really love that!'_  She replied happily.

He gave her a warm smile back.

' _Good._ ' He murmured back to her softly.

He gently severed their connection and they finished their meal in a companionable silence.

After they finished, he helped her clean up the dishes and then they went to take a seat at the table where his computer was. Together they began to search the IKEA website for different things that she might like to add to her room. Occasionally, she would point to something that she liked but he could tell that she was still not very used to having access to whatever she wanted. He tried to gently coax her into picking out more things. As they continued to look at more things, he could tell that she was becoming a bit more comfortable with choosing different things. She even began to lean against him which made him very happy. He could tell that he had gained a lot more of her trust. Suddenly, she sort of froze against him and he wondered what the problem was until he saw that those big violet eyes of hers were focused on the fat manila folder on the table next to the computer. Shit, he forgot to put her folder away!

' _Oh wait to go, jackass!_ ' He thought to himself.

He knew that she wasn't ready for any of that stuff yet. Gently, he tried to distract her from the folder. He moved his hand so he could stroke her back gently.

"Oh Charlie, just ignore the folder. Don't worry about what's inside of it, it doesn't change anything anyway." He reassured.

She hesitated for a moment and then nodded. They continued to look at different things for her room but he could tell that her heart wasn't into it anymore. It was time for a better distraction than this. He thought for a moment and then came up with a great idea.

"Say Charlie, how would you like to go sit and watch a moive?" He asked curiously.

She gave him a small smile at his suggestion and grabbed his hand gently.

' _Yes please! I would like that very much!_ ' She replied happily in his head.

He gave her a warm smile and stroked the top of her head. He could tell that she enjoyed the touch and that made him very happy.

"Good girl, I'll go and make some popcorn. How about you go and pick out a movie?" He suggested.

She smiled and nodded. She left and went to go pick a movie. He laughed at her enthusiasm and made sure to buy all of the things she picked out before turning off his computer. He got up from his seat and went to go make some popcorn. As he did this, he just couldn't stop the smile that broke out onto his face. He knew that Charlie would probably end up picking out some kind of cartoon and that didn't bug him one bit. It was really fun to help Charlie catch up on all the movies she missed in the last four years. So far it seemed like her favorites were  _Disney_ cartoons. It was downright adorable. After popping up a bag of popcorn and grabbing a couple of cans of pop, he headed back into the living room. Sure enough, she was holding the movie 'Tangled' in her hand. He couldn't help the chuckle that is escaped him.  _Disney_ movie it was, he heard 'Tangled' was pretty good so he didn't mind. He placed the bowl of popcorn and the drinks onto his coffee table. After doing that, he helped Charlie put the DVD in. The two them got comfortable on the couch and he started the DVD. He was happy to see Charlie enjoying her drink and popcorn. It was so nice to see her enjoy being normal instead of worrying about what happened to her.

About half way though the movie, he felt her start sagging against him and shifted to let her rest against him. He gently caressed her head. This was something he could get used to. For the first time in a long time, he didn't feel so lonely and he was enjoying it immensely. Throughout the rest of the movie, he drifted between asleep and awake. After the movie ended, he tried to maneuver out from underneath Charlie without waking her up. It took him a while but he managed to get himself free. Letting her sleep on the couch for a moment, he went to deal with the empty pop cans and popcorn bowl. After he did that, he came back into the living room and gently lifted Charlie up into his arms. He carefully brought her to her room and set her down on her bed. He gently removed her socks and got her underneath the covers. He pulled the covers up to her chin made sure that the stuffed bear that he got her was right next to her head. Once he was satisfied that she was comfortable, he left her room so she could try and sleep.

Lately, she had been having a lot of nightmares and it had been interrupting both of their sleep pretty badly. No matter what, he would never ever leave her to suffer alone though. He knew that they were fragments of memories that were trying to resurface from being shot in the head so much and having her memories all garbled up so many times. Oh his poor Charlie girl, he would try to help her any way he could. He let out a soft sigh and went to his own room. He got ready for bed. After brushing his teeth, he stripped down to his underwear and he climbed into bed. For the first time in forever he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Sometime Later

_ Charlie _

Memory/Dream

_Charlie paced her cage. As of late, her handlers were trying to make her mad and she didn't know why. Her sensitive hearing picked up that the thought her powers to be stronger when she was feeling negative emotions but she didn't like herself that way. Her powers became so hard to control almost like they had a mind of their own. She hated it. Two of the short man's goons approached the side of her cage and she was immediately on full alert. What did those two idiots want with her now?_

_One goon produced a key from his pocket. He grinned a grin that she did not like and opened her cage. Both the goons entered her cage and she tried to back away to no avail. The other goon produced a different looking key from his pocket and her violet eyes became large. The short man was going to have them provoke her on purpose. He didn't care whether they lived or died, he just wanted to make 'Darkfire' come out and they were too stupid to realize it. No matter what he did, no matter how many times he tried to bring 'Darkfire' out he would never be able to control whatever it was. There were no brain control chips or no amount of silver bullets that could help him. But that would never stop him from trying ever._

_Immediately, she could smell their arousal and she knew what they would try and do but she wouldn't let them. The second goon pushed the key into the side of her collar and it fell uselessly to the ground. The first goon then reached out for her chest. That was all it took. She could feel the dark energy exploding her from her. Purple energy formed around her palms and she pointed them at the goons. The energy exploded from her palms and sent the two goons flying. She didn't even bat an eyelash. She sniffed the air and knew the short man was nearby. As soon as she tried to step out of her cage, something happened to her. The short man activated the chip inside of her brain and she collapsed into the ground. She started clawing at her head. That stupid chip! No matter what she tried she couldn't fight it off. She felt her anger ebb away and 'Darkfire' slipped back into wherever it came from._

" _That's it my sweet 'Lightfire', you will always belong to me. You will never leave here and I will control all of you!" The short man crooned darkly._

_She felt herself being picked up and thrown back into her cage. She felt the metal collar being put back around her neck. She could feel the man stroking her back and there was nothing that she could do about it._

End Dream/Memory

Suddenly, Charlie jolted awake and she couldn't stop the scream that escaped from her. That was by far the most intense memory-dream that she had experienced so far. She could feel her emotions start spiraling out of control. She could feel 'Darkfire' start to claw its way to the surface and she tried to tamp it down. She couldn't let it come out around Clint. What if she couldn't control it? Oh why couldn't things just be normal for her for once? She tried to calm herself down but it was no use. She couldn't help the wracking sobs that escaped her.

_Clint_

Clint's blue-green eyes suddenly snapped opened. His awareness was suddenly screaming at him that Charlie needed him. He jumped out of bed not even caring that he was just in his boxers. He left his room quickly and wasted no time in entering Charlie's room. There she was in the middle of the bed sobbing into her knees. He realized very quickly that she had another nightmare and that whatever it was about wasn't good. Immediately, he climbed into the bed with her and she wasted no time in coming to him. He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face into his chest and continued to sob. She reached out to grab his hand. She started showing him things but the images were moving so fast it was hard to figure out what exactly she was trying to tell him.

"Charlie baby, you've got to slow down. I can't understand what you are trying to tell me." He murmured to her, trying to sooth her.

She tried to slow down but it was still very hard to make out was she was trying to tell him. The only thing he could make out was something about something called 'Darkfire'. She continued to tell him more things and he put together that 'Darkfire' was something inside of her and she was petrified that this 'Darkfire' would come out and hurt him. So there was more to her mutation that met the eye. Unfortunately, he was sure that this was something that her handlers already knew about and that's why it petrified her so much.

' _Oh Charlie, what have these monsters done to you?_ ' He thought angrily.

Again, he found himself fighting to keep his anger in check. He forced himself to put it away but it was getting harder and harder to do so but right now Charlie was all that mattered. He would take some of his anger out on his targets tomorrow. He rocked her back and forth and cooed to her softly in an effort to calm her down. Thankfully, it worked some.

"Shhh sweetness, you don't have worry about any of that stuff anymore. You won't hurt me I promise." He cooed to her.

She gave him a look as if to say 'How can you be so sure of that?'

"I will find a way to help you keep that part of you controlled." He tried to reassure her.

Thankfully, it mostly worked and she calmed down some more. Her sobs turned to hiccups and she nodded into his chest. She was absolutely clinging to him and he knew that there was no way that he could leave her anytime soon. He got her and himself comfortable. He watched her try to pull up the sheets around her and then grabbed her teddy. She cuddled it close to herself and found the gesture to be completely endearing. She cuddled herself into him and he caressed her head. He knew that it would really calm her down. Sure enough she began trying to drift off.

Two Hours Later

_Clint_

While Charlie slept soundly against his side, Clint was wide awake. He just couldn't get this 'Darkfire' thing whatever it was out of his head. He just had to know about it and why it had been so important to her handlers. As gently and as carefully as he could, he extracted himself from Charlie's iron grip. It was no easy task but he managed to do it without waking up. She had quite the grip when she was distressed he assumed it was part of her feral mutation. He exited Charlie's room and sat down where his laptop sat. He wondered if those nameless video files would give him any answers to his questions. He really didn't want to watch anymore of them but he was left with little choice.

He turned on his laptop and started looking through them. One jumped out at him because it was very large. He hesitated for a moment and then he clicked onto it. He couldn't BELIEVE what he was watching. There was video after video of the short man trying to provoke this 'thing' whatever it was into coming out of her. Most of the time, he would send in his two goons to do all the dirty work. They would touch her and it would provoke her into losing control of 'Darkfire'. It seemed to only come out whenever she was felt any very extremely negative emotions. Watching those men touch her caused his blood to boil. He forced himself to stay in check so he didn't accidentally break his laptop.

He watched her loose control of 'Darkfire' and it was like nothing he had ever witnessed before in his life. He thought was he saw so far was bad, this was absolutely brutal. This being inside of her whatever it was, was nothing but dark and ruthless. The purple energy swirling around her palms blew away the goons like they were rag dolls.

Then it just stopped abruptly as it started. The short man must have activated the chip inside of her head. His heart broke open when he realized that this must have been what she had been dreaming about. His protective instincts flared to life he would do whatever he could to make sure that 'Darkfire' would never come out ever.

He watched the video until the end and then shut it off. He closed the lid of his laptop and sighed. It was clear that those sick bastards were trying to harness 'Darkfire' at whatever the cost.

' _Sick fucks._ ' He thought to himself angrily.

He got up from his chair and went back into Charlie's room. He sat down on the edge of the bed and caressed the top of her head. Even in her sleep, she immediately tried to seek him out. He gave her a tender look.

He would help her get through this but he realized something that he didn't like. He realized that he wouldn't be able to help her on his own like he wanted to.

He hated to admit it but he needed help.


	8. Unexpected Reaction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello everybody! I want to apologize for the insanely long time it took me to update this thing. My grandma had recently went into the hospital to undergo a procedure and ended up having a host of complications so I have been busy helping her and that's why my updates on everything went a little…fucky. So my apologies for all of that but never fear I will never NOT update this thing! Hopefully this chapter makes up for everything and everybody really likes it! I think that's all I have to say now on with the show and happy reading everybody!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!

_Clint_

As he continued to watch Charlie sleep, Clint let out a huge, long sigh. Who would he get to help him with Charlie? He couldn't get just anyone. He thought of Tony momentarily then he shuddered. He respected Tony and all of that but Tony could be loud and obnoxious at the best of times and he didn't think Charlie would be too accepting of that with the way she was right now. His mind drifted to Bruce and again he hesitated. Bruce was a much better option than Tony was but he didn't know he would react to trying to help out somebody as messed up as him when he was trying so hard to get and keep his own shit together. He would drop off the stupid POS collar for him and Tony to look at though. The next person that popped into his head was Natasha and right now that was just a big fat 'fuck no'. Natasha would more than likely try to murder Charlie rather than help her or they would try to kill each other. The only suitable option for the moment that he could think of was Steve.

Steve was quiet, calm and patient. Plus, the super soldier serum made him strong and he could take a hit so Charlie could practice on him without the fear of hurting him too badly. He and Steve were very similar in personality and he knew that would help Charlie learn to trust Steve faster. He went through all the options in his mind once more and decided that Steve was in fact the best one for the time being. He started formulating a plan inside of his head. As soon as it was a more reasonable time in the morning, he would go and seek Steve out. He only hoped that Steve would agree to help him out. For the time being, he decided that more sleep was in order. He curled up next to Charlie. Immediately, Charlie tried to seek him out and he ran his hand through her messy brown locks. He could only hope all of this would somehow work, he promised her that he would help her keep 'Darkfire' away and he intended to keep that promise no matter what.

Four Hours Later

_Clint_

Cracking open his eyes, Clint let out a long yawn and stretched languidly. He was definitely happy that he managed to get more sleep. Immediately, he turned to check on Charlie and was happy to see her sleeping soundly next to him. Satisfied that she was alright, he picked up the clock she had sitting on the little table she keep next to her bed and checked the time. It was now 7:00am. He knew that Steve would be up and beating the tar out of punching bags in the gym. He usually got up around this time to go and train so he knew that it wouldn't upset Charlie too much to wake up without him there with her. Gently, he de-tangled himself from her and tried to sneak out of her bedroom without waking her up. Some days trying to get away with doing it was easier said than done because of her sensitive hearing. Thankfully, it seemed that luck was on his side today. He somehow managed to escape Charlie's room without accidentally waking her up.

He quickly and quietly went to his room so he could clean himself up and put his plan into motion. He entered his room and wasted no time in jumping into the shower. After he got out, he placed a towel around his waist and got to work shaving his five o'clock shadow off. After he finished up with that, he gave his teeth a quick clean. Satisfied that the felt good and clean, he exited the bathroom and got dressed. He just threw on the close that he used for training in case he had the time to stop a shoot a few arrows after he finished talking to Steve. It would do wonders for his anger issues. Once he finished getting dressed, he exited his room and went straight to his lap top. He wanted to upload some video proof into his phone just in case Tony gave him shit about the collar or Steve wanted to know just what he was getting himself into if he agreed to help him. He didn't think that Bruce would need the video proof because he would want to know how the collar worked regardless.

He sat down at his laptop and opened the lid. He turned the computer on and waited for everything to load up. After everything loaded, he went to the folder were he kept all of the nameless audio files. He picked out a couple of the audio files and emailed them to himself so he could have access to them on his phone. After he finished putting the audio files into his phone, he made sure to close every file in case Charlie wanted to use his computer and then closed the lid of his laptop. Getting up from the desk, he grabbed the collar from his bag of tools and went to his kitchen cupboards to grab a breakfast bar. He didn't eat something, he knew that Charlie would somehow find out and get on him for it.

Thinking of Charlie, he went to check on her one final time before he left the apartment for good. She was still sleeping soundly and clutching her teddy bear tightly to herself. He gave her a gentle look and then shut her bedroom door softly. Satisfied that everything was okay, he left the apartment and sought out Bruce's lab. He knew that Tony would be in there with Bruce, he could only hope that Tony would cooperate for a change but he knew that it wasn't very likely that he would. Sure enough, he reached Bruce's lab and Tony was in there with him looking over…something. He entered the room and both Tony and Bruce looked up surprised to see him standing there. Tony spoke first.

"Legolas! What brings you into our neck of the woods?" Tony asked curiously.

He frowned, he hated that stupid nickname but he really needed Tony's help so he ignored it for now.

"This. It was around the neck of the young mutant girl I rescued all of those weeks ago." He explained, dumping the collar onto Bruce's work table.

Bruce looked at the collar with interest but he could tell Tony wasn't into it. He fought the urge to roll his ocean eyes why did that not surprise him? However, Bruce picked up the collar and began to examine it closely and that was a good start.

"It controlled her mutation; every time she tried to activate it the collar would try and shock the life out of her." He explained further.

Suddenly, Tony snatched the collar right out Bruce's hands to examine it himself and that caused Bruce to give him a dirty glare.

"If we figure out how this thing ticks for you and who made it, what's in it for us?" Tony asked, quirking his brow.

He internally started freaking out at what Tony said. All he could picture in his mind was what his poor Charlie girl went through. If Tony kept saying shit like that he would end up drop-kicking him right in the dick with no remorse and he saw that Bruce seemed equally appalled at what he said. Now, he was really glad he brought the video footage with him. But before he showed Bruce and Tony the footage he would answer Tony's question first.

"What if the assholes that did this to that young girl start experimenting on other mutants? What happens if they manage to create an army of super mutants? Then what happens?" He asked Tony harshly.

He could tell that Tony was considering what he said. Pulling out his cell phone, he pulled up one of the videos and pressed play. He made sure to crank the volume a little bit.

"Here." He handed his phone to Tony. "I want you to look at that video; maybe it'll change your tune a little bit."

Putting the collar down on the work table in front of him, Tony took the offered device from him and began to watch the video and it didn't take very long at all for his whole entire demeanor to change. Bruce was also standing next to Tony trying to watch the video. He could see Bruce's demeanor start to shift too and it was a whole lot scarier to watch. He could tell that the video was making Bruce angry and he could see that 'the other guy' was just itching to try and break free. As the video played on, Charlie's screams of "please no!" could be heard through the speakers. He was showing them the video of her getting her throat cut. He thought it would best get his point across. Suddenly, Bruce's entire form started quaking and his eyes momentarily flashed to electric green. He could tell how hard he was working to keep 'big and green' from breaking free. He knew that Bruce had a soft spot for kids and didn't like seeing people get hurt. Despite the fact that he had a 'giant rage monster' trapped inside of him he had a kind and gentle soul.

"Enough!" He growled lowly.

Bruce ripped the phone right out of Tony's right hand and tossed it back to him. Tony didn't even flinch at what Bruce just did. He wasted no time in turning the video off. Even though he was trying to hide it, Tony looked pale and shaken. He actually looked like he might even hurl. Even for an arrogant, pompous asshole like Tony, the sight was not easy for him to see. Tony suddenly left the lab quickly and wordlessly. After Bruce re-collected himself, he turned to him and placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"I don't care what Tony says, I will take that thing apart and find out who made it. No kid anywhere should have to endure THAT, especially not a little girl." Bruce told him, he could still see the anger flashing in his eyes.

He gave Bruce a grateful look.

"Thank you Bruce, you have no idea how much this means to me." He said gratefully.

Bruce tried to calm himself further and he nodded.

"Come back here and check in with me a little later. Hopefully I will have something to tell you." Bruce informed him gently.

He nodded and watched as Bruce picked the collar up and started examining it. He knew that it meant that he had been essentially dismissed and left the lab. Now it was time to go and find Steve. He only hoped that he didn't end up having to show Steve any of the videos to get him to understand the severity of the situation. He hated having to see Charlie be hurt and tortured over and over again. He let out a long sigh and walked very slowly to the gym. He could only hope that Natasha was far away from there because he couldn't deal with her on top of everything else at the moment. He approached the gym doors and his awareness told him that only Steve was inside, thank god for small miracles. He opened the gym door and sure enough Steve was pounding the shit out of a punching bag. He approached Steve carefully. As if sensing his presence, Steve stopped what he was doing and gave him a little bit of weird look. He knew that while he and Steve got along fine they never really 'hung out' so he knew that Steve probably found it a little weird that he was suddenly coming to talk to him.

"Hey Steve, can I talk to you for a sec?" He asked softly.

Steve came around the punching bag and nodded.

"Sure Clint, what can I help you with?" He asked curiously.

For a moment, he debated on how to explain his situation to Steve and then decided the best way to do it would be to just tell him everything. He let out a soft sigh.

' _Here goes everything._ ' He thought to himself.

"Okay, so about four weeks ago I left the tower to go and pick up a coffee (he decided to leave the part about Natasha out). Before I entered the coffee shop, I caught sight of something in an ally way. It turned out it was a young mutant girl tied a dumpster left for dead. She had been stolen from the mutant school called  _Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children._ She been institutionalized and experimented on. She was brought back here and I volunteered myself to be her guardian. She is living with me now. She has something…dark living inside of her and I need help. She needs help keeping that part of her controlled." He started.

Steve shifted a little uncomfortably at his explanation. He knew it was probably from hearing about a young girl getting experimented on. Steve was a very kind-hearted person and didn't like hearing about stuff like this any more than Bruce did.

"Anyway, I'm telling you this because I need your help. I have no idea who else to ask. She is so easily spooked by everyone and everything. I need somebody kind and calm who can take a hit and won't get blown sky high the first time she tries to use her powers. She needs to gain some kind of control so she can live as normally as possible. I need you to help me figure out a way to do this." He finished.

He could tell Steve was thinking it over. This was a huge amount of baggage to take on and he would completely understand if Steve said hell no. After some internal debate, he pulled out his phone and pulled out the video of her losing control of 'Darkfire' to show Steve. In all fairness Steve should know what he was signing up for. He handed Steve the phone and Steve gave him a questioning look.

"What is this for?" He asked curiously.

"I want to show you what you are potentially getting yourself into. You deserve a fair chance to say 'hell no' to all of this." He explained.

He gestured for Steve to click on the video and he did. As Steve watched the video, he tried to tune it out. He already saw it once; he really didn't even want to hear it again. As the video continued to play, he watched Steve's facial expressions change. He could tell he had gotten to the part where the two goons essentially tried sexually assault her to get her to lose control of 'Darkfire' and he knew that Steve came from a time where men actually treated women with respect. He could see how much it bothered him. Steve got to the end of the video and handed him back the phone. His awareness was picking up the anger just pulsating from his form. It was a good thing that Steve didn't have the ability to 'hulk out' on him. Steve ran a hand through his messy blond hair in an attempt to calm himself down.

"Look, I don't know what good it'll do but I'll try to help you out the best I can. No dame anywhere should be treated like that, especially not one as special as she clearly is." Steve told him; it was clear that he was trying to keep the anger from his voice.

He inwardly breathed a huge sigh of relief. He gave Steve a grateful look. He had no idea what he would have done if he had said no. After explaining to Steve a little bit more how Charlie operated and what to expect from her, he left the gym to go and get her. If this crazy plan of his had any chance at all of working, there was no time like the present to make it start happening because Charlie NEEDED to learn how to trust Steve to some degree. He could only imagine the conversation he was going to need to have with Charlie and how it would go. It wasn't going to be pretty but Charlie couldn't spend her entire life holed up in his apartment either. This was something she HAD to do and he would help her.

_Steve_

Steve watched Clint's retreating back and sighed. He had no idea what he just got himself into but he knew that he needed to help that young girl. He wrinkled his nose as he thought of the term 'girl' it didn't suit her. The term 'woman' suited her far better. A little dame like her should be treated like the queen she was not rotting away in that hell hole she was forced into. He couldn't imagine what she had gone through being taken from the only place she probably felt comfortable in and thrown in a cage like an animal. He couldn't get those huge violet eyes of hers out of his mind. He knew that those terrible men in the video had done terrible things to her and experimented on her and made this thing inside of her whatever it was come out of her on purpose. Immediately, he was reminded of what happened to Bucky and he got angry all over again. HYDRA tried to turn him into a killing machine. He couldn't help but think that those men in the video whoever they were did the same thing to this poor young woman. Clint told him that her name was Charlie, a special name for a special dame. He hadn't met her yet but he already knew that she was. Anybody who lived through something that bad had to be and he would help her any way that he could.

_Charlie_

Charlie couldn't believe what she was about to do. She was about to try and talk to a MALE somebody that wasn't Clint. She couldn't BELIEVE that Clint was forcing her to do that. She had to calm herself down. She knew that Clint was only trying to help her but it sure didn't feel like that. She felt like she was going to hyperventilate. She knew that he could see what was happening to her. Half way to the gym, Clint stopped them both and knelt in front of her. He gave her a tender look and cup one of her cheeks in each of his hands. She knew that he was now feeling her anxiety. Tears burned at her violet eyes and she couldn't help the few that escaped. Gently he wiped them away with his thumbs.

" _I'm scared._ " She murmured inside of his head.

She saw that his ocean eyes widened at what she said inside of his head. She knew that those words held special meaning to him because they were the first words that she ever told him and now she was telling him them all over again. Hearing them caused him to give her a soft look and he caressed the side of her face.

" _I know, sweetness but I am doing this to help you I promise but I can't do it on my own no matter how much I want to. Steve is very kind and I promise that he won't hurt you. He wants to try and help you get control of this thing as much as I do._ " He reassured her softly.

She bit her lip. Deep down, she knew that he was right. Steve was Captain America after all, he wouldn't hurt her but it was still hard. Finally, she touched his hand and nodded to him that she was okay to continue the rest of the way to the gym. He curled his large around her smaller one and she smiled up at him. He gave her a gentle smile. Together they walked the rest of the way to the gym. Once they reached gym, he gently let go of her hand and gently nudged her in the direction of the gym door. She knew that he was trying to get her to do this on her own terms and she was eternally grateful for that.

Cautiously, she entered the gym and her sensitive hearing instantly picked up the sounds of fists smashing against a punching bag and she knew that Steve was training. She almost wanted to turn around and leave but she knew that Clint was counting on her to do this. Her violet eyes sought him out and she was in fact right, he was training hard. For a moment, she just watched him train. She was definitely not reacting in the same way she did when she first met Clint. This felt different and it freaked her out a little bit. Finally gaining a little bit of courage, she moved at bit closer to him. She watched him for a bit more and then she moved a little bit closer to him once again. This time however, she hit a squeak in the floor boards of the gym and this alerted him to her presence. He stopped his assault on the punching bag and smiled warmly at her.

Panicking slightly, she immediately froze in place. This was NOT at all like when she first met Clint at all, she felt like her instincts were going all haywire on her. She gathered all of the wits that she had and tried to step closer to him. As she did this, he held out his hand palm up and instead of approaching her he waited very patiently for her to approach him instead. It was very clear that Clint taught him what to do to make everything easier on her. Thank god for small miracles. She finally got close enough to him to place her small hand his larger one. As she was about to so, a breeze suddenly blew through one of the gym's open window. It ruffled his messy blond hair. She suddenly caught a huge whiff of his scent and froze.

He smelled nothing like Clint. This scent was all consuming and she had to have it. It was like nothing she had ever smelled before. Generally, she hated the scent of humans especially human men. Clint seemed to exception to that rule and she thought he would only ever be the exception to that rule. Clearly, she was very wrong but this was on a whole other level. This scent drove her crazy and set her on fire from the inside out. Her eyes darkened and turned cat-like and her fangs elongated. No matter what she tried to do, she couldn't stop the transformation from happening even if she wanted to. She let out a low purr and just about started drooling. She tried to get closer to Steve but before she could, he called for Clint.

Clint entered the gym and let out an exclamation and the scene in front of him. She let out an angry growl at being interrupted from doing what she didn't even know. She turned, ready to charge at Clint to protect what was hers. Steve seemed to somehow realize what was about to happen and he called her name loudly hoping it would distract her some. It worked.

"Charlie!" He yelled loudly.

She turned back to face him. She took in as much of as the scent as could she was so close to him now and then she froze suddenly. What was she even doing? Backing away from Steve, she turned around and ran away as fast as she could. She didn't even acknowledge Clint she just had to get away as fast as she could. When the cost was clear, she got on all fours and just bolted. She was completely lost to her feral mutation now and she was petrified she would have hurt Steve if she stayed around him any longer. She thought of Clint and shuddered. Would he even still want her now after this?

She had to get out of the building as fast as she could.

What on earth was happening to her and how did she make it stop?


	9. Strange New Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! Sorry again for the wait but here is the new chapter! I can get over how much everybody loves this fic on here it's amazing! Thank you so much for all the kudos(s), comments and bookmarks it really means a lot! If you all like this story so much don't hesitate to check out my other Marvel stuff on the way out! I think that's all I have to say!
> 
> Happy reading everybody! 
> 
> Also to add a quick disclaimer, I own nothing!

_Charlie_

Charlie continued to run on all fours not caring where she ended up as long as she managed to get out of the building. She had to get away from Clint and Steve as fast as she could. She didn't want to hurt Steve and she was sure that Clint would no longer want her after this. She had no idea what was happening to her. She had never known a scent to smell like that before, male or female. She somehow managed to exit the building without being caught and continued to run until she came across Central Park. Her instincts were screaming at her to hide before Clint and Steve could find her. She found a good sized tree and wasted no time in climbing it. This was something Victor taught her to do when they were on missions together. Climbing trees made it much easier to see everything and seek out or scent mission targets. Sitting in the tree, she felt herself calm down some. Enough that her eyes returned to normal and she felt her fangs retract. As she continued to think about scenting people and Steve's scent, she was suddenly hit with a garbled memory.

_Memory_

_Sitting up in a tree with Victor, Charlie let out a slightly distorted annoyed noise. She didn't want to be learning how to scent people. She hated the scent of humans. Victor seemed to sense what she was thinking and let out an annoyed growl. He had a severe look on his face that kind of scared her a little bit._

" _Little cub, I know this isn't your favorite thing in the world. I get that but it's something that you have to learn." He stated in a voice that left no room for any argument._

_She wondered why he was acting so strange. It was almost as if there were other reasons he wanted to teach her how to scent people that didn't involve her missions. She looked at him questioningly. What other use did she have for scenting besides her missions? He continued to look at her. She saw that the severe look on his face had softened a fraction. It was very clear that he was trying to figure out the best way to explain something to her without accidently scaring her even more. He let out another low growl and it caused her to flinch a little bit. She could feel the frustration just rolling off of him in waves. She looked at him with huge violet eyes._

" _God, I suck at this shit! Look kid, I am telling you this for your own good because I won't always be here to help you. There is more to scenting people than just these stupid missions. Scenting people can tell you the difference between somebody you can trust and somebody who is your enemy. I know you hate the scent of humans, I do too but one day you might come across a human that smells so good that you won't be able to resist them. You might think that it's a bad thing but it's really not. You will want to run from it but my advice to you is to just let it happen because if you don't you will be miserable for the rest of your fucking life and that is a long ass time to be miserable." He told her seriously._

_She looked at him with shock. She was beginning to understand why he was so miserable all of the time and she felt bad for him. He seemed to realize what she was thinking and gave her a look that made her drop the train of thought all together._

" _Tch, you would quit pussyfooting around and scent your target already? I don't want to be stuck in this tree all day with you." He said gruffly._

_Immediately, she went back to concentrating on the task at hand and tried to scent her mission target. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but hope that nothing like that ever happened to her._

_End Memory_

Shaking herself free from the memory, Charlie pulled her knees up the best she could considering the small space she was in and let her head fall into her lap. Just what was she going to do? It was very clear that what Victor described in her memory is what happened when she caught a whiff of Steve's scent. In the memory Victor told her that it if ever happened to her, to let things just happen but how could she do that? She didn't want to trap Steve in something as crazy as this, whatever 'this' even was. It was bad enough that Clint had to deal with everything already. As she thought of Clint, she became even more distressed, what would Clint think of all if this and would he even still want her anymore? At the thought of Clint not wanting her anymore, she could feel tears pricking at the corners of her violet eyes. Thinking that made her heart constrict painfully, she NEEDED Clint she couldn't be without him.

She made a small distorted noise of distress, she had the overwhelming urge to leave the tree to go and find Clint. She wanted Clint so bad but she knew that Steve would probably be with him and the thought of that made her shudder. Just thinking of Steve's scent caused the beast inside of her to drool a little bit. Immediately this made her decide against leaving the tree for the moment, what if she couldn't control herself around him? She could only imagine what would happen then, what was she going to do?

Sometime Later

_Charlie_

For some time, Charlie sat huddled in the tree and drifted in and out of sleep until her enhanced hearing picked something up and she realized that somebody had found her hiding spot. Immediately, she sniffed the air gently to determine whether the intruder was friend or foe and realized that it was Clint's clean scent. She could also pick up Steve's scent along with Clint's and she couldn't help but shudder. For a moment, she warred with her feral mutation but she somehow managed to keep it under control. She knew that they were both down there somewhere close by. She had no idea what she should do. She wanted nothing more then to go to him but she was so petrified that she would hurt Steve. Suddenly, Clint called out for her and made the decision for her.

"Charlie baby, I know you up are there somewhere. I promise that everything is okay and you aren't in trouble. Just please come down." Clint coaxed gently.

For a moment, she hesitated but she knew that she wouldn't be able to stay in a tree forever even though she kind of wished that she could. Finally, she gathered all of the courage she had and slowly began to climb out of the tree. She hit the ground and turned to face Clint and Steve.

They were both looking at her with extreme worry; she supposed she must look like a total mess. Before she could blink, Clint had her in his arms and she breathed a sigh of relief taking in some of his scent at the same time. She finally felt herself begin to calm down a little bit. She reached out for his hand.

" _You still want me?_ " She murmured inside of his head softly.

He gave her a tender look and caressed the side of her face.

"Oh sweetness, I will always want you no matter what." He reassured softly.

Hearing this caused big fat tears to roll down her cheeks, and Clint wiped them away with his thumbs. She couldn't believe that Clint still wanted her. After she managed to calm herself down some with Clint's help, she pulled away from him a little bit and turned to face Steve who looked completely awkward at her and Clint's display of affection.

Even though she was so close to Clint she could still smell him, she could feel her feral mutation try to activate once more but this time she managed to somehow keep it mostly under control. Whatever it was that was happening to her, it was positively begging her to go to him and she found that she couldn't ignore it. She couldn't BELIEVE what she was about to try and do. With careful and calculated movements, she slowly moved closer to Steve. She watched as Steve's awkwardness started to melt away and he gave her a gentle look. He held out his hand palm up for her and waited patiently. It took her a moment but she managed to get close enough to place her hand in his. When she finally did place her hand in his, she could feel all of his emotions and it was nothing like she felt when she touched Clint's hand. His emotions were kind and gentle and she could tell that despite everything that just happened that he still wanted to help her. That made an indescribable feeling run through her which she could tell that he clearly felt by the shifting expressions on his face. For reasons she couldn't even begin to comprehend, she had an extreme urge to talk to him.

" _I'm sorry._ " She murmured softly in his mind.

He looked completely shocked at hearing her voice inside of his head and she wondered if she made a mistake. She didn't want to accidently scare him off.

"Are you…are you talking to me inside of my head?" He asked incredulously.

She nodded softly.

" _Is it okay? It's the only way I can talk. Do you want me to stop?_ " She asked him softly.

The look on his face shifted from shock to reassurance.

"Oh doll, don't apologize. I promise you that everything is fine." He reassured.

She let out a sigh of relief. She didn't want him to be scared of her. Unconsciously, she stepped closer to him. Catching a huge whiff of his scent she couldn't help but let out a low, contented purr. Again it felt like she was burning from the inside out and she felt this strange feeling of possessiveness wash through her with it and it scared her. What scared her even more was that she kind of liked it and wanted nothing more than to find out what these strange new feelings meant.

_Clint_

Clint watched the scene in playing out front of him with his nose wrinkled. He wasn't expecting anything like this to happen when he cooked up this plan to have Steve help Charlie and now he wasn't sure if he liked it or not. It was clear that something in the feral part of her mutation was attracted to Steve. He didn't quite understand what was happening but he did know that it couldn't be reversed and that didn't sit well with him at all. He didn't know what he was going to do about it but he did know that it was time to end what was happening in front of him and he cleared his throat loudly.

Both Steve and Charlie jumped apart. Charlie looked really embarrassed and just a little bit ashamed. He sighed and gestured for her to come to him. She complied readily and came to him. He curled her small hand in his larger one.

" _I'm so sorry Clint._ " She murmured softly.

He could feel the shame and embarrassment just rolling off of her.

"Oh sweetness, it's okay. I'm not mad, I promise." He reassured gently.

She let out a small sigh, her relief was almost palatable.

"Come on; let's get back to the tower." He told her gently.

She nodded and he gently led her in the direction of the tower with Steve following close behind.

Back at the Tower

_Clint_

Clint sighed as he watched Steve say goodbye to Charlie. He, Steve and Charlie decided that enough was enough for today and that they would try again tomorrow. Charlie was exhausted from everything that she went through and he wanted to find out more about what was happening to her. He knew that whatever it was it couldn't be reversed but he wanted to know what it was going to do to her and Steve for that matter. He let out another sigh through his nose; this was NOT what he had in mind when he came up with this plan. He wanted Steve to help him with her powers not for her feral mutation to suddenly pull some whacky imprint shit on him. What was he even going to do with this situation?

_Steve_

As he watched Charlie walk away with Clint, he ran a hand through his messy blond hair. When he decided to help Clint with Charlie, he didn't expect anything like this but truth be told it didn't scare him in the least nor was he upset about. He was very curious and intrigued by it but could never be upset with her about it. Looking into those big violet eyes of hers, he could see how she managed to so easily worm her way into Clint's heart. He had been right in the assessment that she was a very special little dame and he wanted to do everything he could to make sure that she knew it. He thought about when she placed her small hand in his and she shared her emotions with him. Clint had explained to him how it worked and what it would feel like but he was still un-prepared for how intense it would be. It also helped him to understand her fear and why she was the way that she was. It made want nothing more than to help her any way that he could.

He let out a long sigh and made his way back to his tiny apartment very slowly. He entered the small space and started preparing a quick meal. He didn't think he could sleep right now but he could always eat. As he prepared his meal, he couldn't help but continue to think about what happened. Because of the time he came from, some people considered him to be naïve when came to certain things but he was far from stupid. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Clint wasn't happy with whatever it was that her feral mutation was doing and he couldn't say that he could blame him. Charlie had been through so much and still had so much to overcome. She was still very scared and unsure about a lot of things and now this, whatever it was, it was something else that she had to worry about on top of everything. He could only pray to whatever god was up there that Clint wouldn't back out of his plan because of this. That was something that he really, really hoped wouldn't happen.

In Clint's Apartment

_Charlie_

Moving around Clint's kitchen, Charlie made a small noise of annoyance. Since they returned to his apartment Clint had been glued to his computer trying to find information on what was happening to her. She considered herself to be a lot of things but stupid was most definitely not one of them. She could tell that Clint wasn't exactly happy with what happened with her feral mutation and Steve. She knew that he wasn't mad at her because it was something beyond her control but she still hated seeing him so unhappy about it. She let out a soft sigh; she finished preparing Clint's meal. She wasn't exactly hungry at the moment so she just put a plate of leftovers together for Clint and microwaved it. After the microwaved beeped, she pulled it out and went to bring it over to Clint. She nudged him gently to get his attention. He turned his attention onto her and smiled when he saw the plate of food. He gently took it from her and touched her hand.

"Thanks, sweetness." Hold her gratefully.

She gave him a soft smile.

" _You're welcome._ " She murmured back to him inside of his head.

He noticed that she had no plate of food and frowned.

"Charlie honey, where is your plate of food?" He inquired.

She made a face, she knew that Clint really hated it when she skipped out on meals but she just didn't think that she could force herself to eat anything right now.

" _I'm sorry Clint; I just don't think I can eat anything right now._ " She explained to him softly.

He gave her a look; she could tell by his emotions that he didn't like the answer she gave him at all.

"Charlie." He was giving her what she now called 'The angry dad look'. "You should really eat something; skipping meals will undo all of the progress you've made."

She bit her lip; it really bothered her when he did that. She had to think of something to tell him.

" _Clint, I promise you that I will eat something in a bit. I just need to lie down for a while first, I am exhausted."_ She told him gently.

Thankfully, she could sense that he understood and gave her a tender look.

"Alright sweetness, you go a lie down. Just make sure to eat something when you get up." He reiterated.

After giving her hand a gentle stroke with his thumb, he let her go. She gave him an extremely grateful look and wasted no time in going to her bed room. She wasn't lying when she told him that she was exhausted. Whenever she activated her feral mutation a lot in a day, it really tended to wear her out especially when she tried so hard to keep it under control. Because she wasn't exactly a hundred percent yet, it was even more so the case now. Entering her bedroom, she began to get herself ready for bed; she cleaned her teeth and changed into a nightie. She climbed into bed and as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light.

Sometime Later

_Charlie_

Charlie was suddenly jolted awake by something. She reached over and grabbed the small clock off of the little table she kept next to her bed and checked it. She was shocked to see that it was 1:00am. She was shocked to have slept so long. She sat there wondering just what in the heck jolted her awake until her sensitive hearing picked up some kind of noise and it sounded very distressed. Instantly she knew that the sound came from Clint. She got out of bed as fast as she could, in her haste she almost tripped over her own blankets. She quickly exited her room and went to Clint's room. Just as she got there, she heard another distressed noise. She entered Clint's room and her heart broke at what she saw. Clint was in his bed clearly having some kind of nightmare. He had kicked off his sheets and was writhing in the center of the bed. She knew that she had to do SOMETHING. She crawled into the bed careful to avoid his thrashing limbs and tried to sooth in the best that she could. She knew that trying to wake up a person in the middle of a nightmare was not good so she tried to keep him calm the best that she could and hoped that he would wake up soon.

Sure enough he began to come around, but she could tell that he was a little disorientated. He was talking about nonsense that she couldn't quite understand. She knew that something had happened to him when New York had been attacked but she could never get him to tell her exactly what it was. He always told her that she had too much of her own stuff to worry about that she shouldn't be worrying about his too. She hated it when he told her that but he was as stubborn as she was he couldn't never get him to crack and tell her.

She grabbed his hand and ran her hand through his sweaty hair. She murmured reassuring things his mind and that seemed to break him of the nightmare's hold. She knew that he was finally starting to wake up thank god for that. His ocean eyes snapped and looked around wildly for a moment before he began to realize what had happened. Instantly, she found herself in his arms.

"Oh Charlie, I am so sorry you had to see that." He murmured softly to her.

She continued to gently sooth him and she could tell by his emotions that it was really helping a lot.

" _Shh Clint, it's okay. I promise you that it's okay._ " She murmured back to him inside of his head reassuringly.

She and Clint were a hell of pair but she knew that no matter what happened they would always have each other and nothing would EVER change that


	10. Power Surge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Dodges flying rotten fruit* OMG! Okay, I so deserved that. I know I said I would have this up Saturday and I am so so sorry that I didn't. I ended up having to do deal with a huge predicament with my downstairs neighbors in my apartment complex. It sucked and it put me so behind but the chapter is done and so is most of the situation for now at least. So I should be able to update at least a LITTLE more frequently. Okay next thing! I just have to say I cannot believe how many people love this thing and thank you so much for the comments and kudos(s)! If you all could keep that up I would be eternally grateful! 
> 
> I think that's all I have to say so on with the show and happy reading everybody!

 

 

 

 

 

 

_Clint_

Letting out a low groan, Clint cracked his sore, tired eyes open. He tried to move a little and found that something was impeding his ability to move. Waking up a little bit more, he realized that Charlie was just about sleeping on top of him. For a moment he was confused as to why Charlie was sleeping with him in his room and then everything came crashing back to him. He remembered having a particularly nasty nightmare and then Charlie coming into his room to see what the problem was. He was honestly shocked at how fast that she managed to sooth him from such a terrible nightmare. He looked down at Charlie and his ocean blue eyes softened. She was glued to his side and her face was buried into his chest. He let out a soft sigh and caressed her head softly. He decided that wanted to do something nice for her not only because she deserved to be spoiled but he wanted to thank her for helping him through that awful nightmare.

He wanted to try and attempt to cook her a nice breakfast. Deep down, he knew that this attempt could turn into an absolute disaster but he really wanted to try and do it. As carefully as he could, he extracted himself from her iron grip. Again, somehow he managed not to wake her up as he did so. After everything that happened yesterday and last night, he supposed that she must be really exhausted. He really didn't want to accidently wake her up. As quietly as he could, he threw on a pair pajama pants and went to go clean himself up a little bit. Entering his bathroom, he made quick work of his five o'clock shadow and brushed his teeth. He decided that he would shower a little bit later. He wanted to see if Charlie would like to start practicing summoning her powers and then have a training session with the Natasha later (which he wasn't looking forward to). Even though part of him really didn't want to, he knew the right thing to do would be to try and salvage what was left of his and Natasha's relationship. In order to try and do that, he would need to try and talk to her. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but he at least had to try.

Letting out a low sigh, he dismissed the subject from his mind for the moment. He had way more important things to be thinking about like what in the HELL was going on between Steve and Charlie. Even though he was trying to be mostly okay with it, it was still bugging the complete shit out of him this was something that he just couldn't deny. Deep down, he knew that there was nothing he could do to change it but that didn't mean that he didn't want to know more about how it worked. So far the only the only thing he found on feral mutation that was of any use to him was a lexicon of sorts on different mutations and what they do. It had been created by a mutant by the name of Dr. Hank McCoy. He did a little digging on said mutant and discovered that he lived at  _Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children._

Somehow, that didn't surprise him at all now he had another reason to go there. The first and foremost being that he still needed to know why in the HELL they left her to rot in that shithole with those sick fucks that hurt her so badly. Something didn't smell right to him and he was determined to figure out what it was but first he wanted to concentrate on making sure that she had some degree of control over her powers. After that, he would talk to her about returning to the school. He was sure that she would want to go with him because she deserved some answers too.

For now, he forced himself to push all of those thoughts from his head and attempted to make Charlie some breakfast. He could only hope that everything didn't turn out too badly. He left his bedroom and went to the kitchen. He decided that he wanted to make her the full meal deal from hash browns to bacon. Going through his fridge and cupboards, he began pulling out ingredients and putting them onto the counter. He also pulled out a couple of frying pans and got to work. Hopefully he wouldn't burn anything. About halfway through his efforts, his awareness picked up that she would be waking up soon. He smiled to himself at that. He was very excited for her to see the 'surprise' that he cooked up for her. Sure enough about five minutes later, Charlie appeared in the kitchen looking adorably half asleep. She stretched and yawned. Seeing that he had started breakfast, she smiled happily at him. She knew how much cooking was so not his strong suite at all. He could see how happy she was that he even attempted to do this for her and that made him very happy. She wasted no time in coming to him. She gently placed her hand on his arm.

" _Clint, this is amazing, thank you!_ " She murmured softly inside his head.

Stopping what he was doing momentarily, he smiled back at her warmly and caressed the top of her head softly.

"You're welcome, sweetness." He replied gently.

After their little moment had ended, she began helping him cook breakfast and they worked together in companionable silence until he decided that it might be a good idea to talk to her about summoning her powers so he could see what they did and how they worked for himself. He knew that it would take a fair bit convincing for Charlie to actually show him and Steve her powers because she was so petrified of them. For a moment, he watched her make some scrambled eggs and then he spoke.

"Charlie honey, would you be up to showing me and Steve your powers today?" He asked gently.

The reaction he got from her was immediate, she nearly dropped the whisk in her hand and she looked up at him with huge violet eyes. She put the whisk in the bowl of eggs and touched his arm gently.

" _Clint please don't make me do that. What if I hurt you or Steve? It's too dangerous._ " She begged inside of his head.

He let out a soft sigh. He knew that this was coming, how he could he convince her that she wouldn't hurt him or Steve and that this was something that she needed to do? She couldn't live her whole life with this hanging over her head. She NEEDED to get control of her powers and he wanted so desperately to help her do so. After getting the bacon out of the frying pan so it wouldn't burn, he turned to Charlie and placed his hands on either side of her face and stroked her cheeks tenderly. He could see the tears in her big violet eyes that were threatening to fall and feel just how terrified she was that she would hurt either him or Steve. He started trying to sooth her any way he could.

"Oh sweetness, I know it's terrifying but you can't keep going on like this. You have to get some kind of control over these powers of your so you can live a happy life. I know it's hard I promise that Steve and I will help you." He told her soothingly.

Finally, he could feel that she was calming down some thankfully and he breathed a sigh of relief. He hated that she still had so much difficulty dealing with all of this, he wanted to make it better for her any way he could. She gave him a gentle look and took his hand.

" _Thank you for helping me with all of this, Clint. I know you are trying to help me and I trust you. I don't know if I can do it but I will try really hard._ " She murmured softly inside of his head.

At the words 'I trust you', he felt a huge jolt of emotion run through his system. He knew how huge it was for her to tell him something like that. He gave her a gentle smile back.

"That's my girl, that's all I can ask for. I promise you will never have to deal with anything alone ever again." He promised.

He knew that she knew that he was telling the truth. Hesitantly, she moved closer to him and hugged him. He hugged her back without any hesitation, this was the first time she voluntarily hugged him without him showing some kind of affection first and he couldn't be more proud of her. Gently, he let her go and his smile turned tender. He gave her a tender look for a moment longer before getting back to their breakfast before it got all burnt. Once everything was all ready to go, he opened his cupboards and pulled out some cups and plates. Then he opened one of his drawers and fished out a couple of forks and knives. He and Charlie served themselves and went to go and sit at his kitchen table. He could see just how much that Charlie was enjoying her breakfast and that made him extremely happy. He loved seeing Charlie happy. After they finished eating their breakfast, he cleaned everything up while Charlie went to change and get herself ready. He let out another soft sigh, he could only hope that everything went smoothly and nothing else crazy happened. He was so done with crazy.

_Charlie_

Charlie let out a small, distorted sigh; she couldn't believe what she just agreed to. She had been thinking that a lot lately but this was by far the scariest thing that she was going to try and do yet but when she told Clint that she trusted him, she really meant it. She knew that he was just trying to help her however scary that it was. She hadn't attempted to use her powers at all since her handlers forced her to do so and she had that stupid collar strapped to her neck to control them. What if she tried to activate them and she couldn't control them? She would never forgive herself if she somehow accidentally hurt Clint or Steve but she knew that Clint was right. She couldn't go on for the rest of her life fearing her powers; she had to learn to control them somehow.

After leaving Clint to do the dishes as per his request, she entered her room and started getting ready as slowly as she could. She knew that she had no choice and she had to do this but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to put it off as long as she could. She decided that she really needed a shower and entered her little bathroom. She went to the little shower and turned on the water. When it got to the right temperature, she stripped out of her night gown and hopped in. She did her best to ignore all of the scars all over her body. She was getting better with her body image but she still hated looking at them. Ignoring her scars for the moment, she began shampooing and conditioning her hair. After she finished that, she made sure that she was good and clean. Satisfied that she was all clean, she hopped out of the shower and turned the water off. She wrapped a towel around herself and cleaned her teeth. Now that she was good to go, she exited her little bathroom and went to go get dressed. She looked through her drawers and decided on something simple. She picked out a black tank top with white wings on the back of it and a pair of jeans. She also pulled out some undergarments as well. She dried herself off and got dressed. She also threw on a pair of mismatched socks and her converse all stars. Before she left her room, she threw her hair up in a messy bun. She decided that her appearance was about as good as it was going to get and left her bedroom. She re-entered the kitchen and saw that Clint was ready to go. She inwardly made a face; she supposed that it was time to face her doom.

She approached Clint and he gently took her small hand in his larger one.

"Are you ready to do this, sweetness?" He asked gently.

She gave him a hesitant nod, however much it scared her she knew that it was something that she had to do.

" _Yes, as ready as I'll ever be, I suppose._ " She murmured softy inside of his head.

He gave her a tender smile and nodded.

"That's my good girl, let's get this over with." He said, giving her small hand a stroke with his thumb.

Hand in hand, she and Clint left the apartment and they walked in a companionable silence to the gym. They entered the gym and it took no time at all for her sensitive hearing to pick up the sounds of Steve training. She also began pick up Steve's scent and it made her inner beast start to purr. Immediately, she had the extreme urge go to him and she just couldn't stop herself from doing it. She let go of Clint's hand and went to go and look for Steve. It didn't take her long to find him. As soon as he saw her, he gave her a warm smile and walked around the punching bag that he was currently beating up so he could greet her properly. He held out his hand and waited patiently her to come to him. She did so willingly and she gently placed her small hand in his large one.

" _Hi_." She murmured softly in his head.

He gave her a gentle and affectionate look. It felt so different than the ones that Clint usually gave her, she couldn't help but enjoy it immensely.

"Hey, doll." He murmured back to her.

Instead of letting of his hand right way, she couldn't help but let herself feel his emotions and they felt so very good. So much so that she allowed herself to share some of her emotions with him. This was something that she only ever allowed herself to do with Clint. She was so lost in how good it felt. She knew that it must have something to do with whatever was happening with her feral mutation. It seemed to be magnifying everything and the sheer intensity of it scared her. Suddenly, Clint cleared his throat loudly and it caused her and Steve to jump apart from each other Steve looked so awkward and she couldn't help the deep blush that spread all over her cheeks and neck. God, these feelings were so confusing but she didn't want them to stop and that scared her even more.

_Clint_

Clint watched Charlie and Steve greet each other and frowned. The same thing that happened when they said goodbye to each other yesterday was happening all over again and it was driving him nuts. It was like they were in their own little bubble or something. For some reason, it made him feel so uncomfortable watching it possibly because Charlie was his daughter for all intents and purposes and Steve was a 90 year old super solider. He could only hope it didn't go any farther than what they were doing now. He decided that he had watched enough and it was time to put a stop to it.

He cleared his throat loudly. Charlie and Steve sprang apart quickly. Charlie looked completely embarrassed and Steve looked extremely awkward. It was very clear that they hadn't even realized what they were doing. Charlie came back to him and he could see how ashamed she was it was clear that she was still trying to understand what was happening to her.

He sighed, as much as it bugged the ever loving shit out of him it wasn't her fault and she couldn't control it. If he showed how uncomfortable he was with all of this, it would really upset her and it might undo all the hard work he did getting her to trust him. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He could see that she was still a little upset and he knew that she wouldn't be able to summon her powers upset. He gave her a reassuring look and caressed the side of her face a bit so she could feel that he wasn't mad at her in any way. After he felt her emotions even out a bit, he turned his attention to Steve and saw just how extremely awkward he looked. He realized that Steve was as clueless as Charlie and decided that he should cut him some slack even though he really would rather not. He decided that he was done thinking about that problem for the moment and it was time to get the show on the road. A part of him was curious about Charlie's powers; he really wanted to see them in action.

"Steve, are you alright with helping Charlie and I test out her powers?" He asked curiously.

He could tell just how happy Steve was with the fact that the focus jumped from the weird imprint shit that was happening between him and Charlie to Charlie's other powers. The awkwardness seemed to melt away and he could tell that Steve was in mission mode now. Thank every god above for that. He gave Clint a nod.

"Sure, sounds good to me." He replied.

Happy with Steve's answer, he turned his attention back to Charlie who was beginning to look extremely nervous. He gave her a tender look and he gently placed a hand on each of her shoulders.

"Sweetness, I know this is very scary for you but Steve and I will be helping you every step of the way I promise." He reassured her gently.

She gave him a small nod and placed one of her small hands onto his arm.

" _I know and thank you for that._ " She murmured softly inside of his head.

He gave her a gentle, reassuring smile and stepped back from her a bit. He gestured for Steve to do the same. There was no telling what would happen when she activated her powers and he really didn't want to be standing in the line of fire and he didn't think Steve wanted to be either. He and Steve watched her intently, for a moment she looked unsure and then she held her hands out and placed them palm up. Her violet eyes drifted shut and she began to concentrate hard. Suddenly, some kind of white energy began to materialize from the center of her palms. It seemed to almost crawl up her arms it was unlike anything had ever witnessed before and he could tell that Steve was just as mesmerized by it as he was.

_Charlie_

Charlie was shocked; she actually managed to activate her powers without blowing anything up. It was a small miracle. She didn't know much about how her powers worked exactly except the fact that they ran on her emotions and that made them every unpredictable. That's why the short man put the collar onto her in the first place because her powers used to activate at the slightest change in her emotions. They would also try to protect her when her handlers hurt her. The short man was so sick of replacing his goons and getting hurt himself when he tried to experiment on her that he put the collar onto her to put a stop to it. The only way she could think to activate them was to concentrate heavily on her emotions. She made sure to only concentrate on the positive ones and then she pictured turning her emotions into white energy. She made sure to concentrate on only the most positive emotions and memories that she could think of in hopes that it would keep 'darkfire' from coming out. So far it was working.

Staring at the white energy that was moving around her small palms, she decided to see if she could manipulate it or not. It took her a few tries but turned out that she could. She let the white energy wind itself up her arms slowly. As she did this, she saw that both Clint and Steve were watching her with awe written all of their faces. She was pretty shocked that she was managing to control it okay too considering how long she was stuck in the collar for. She decided she wanted to push it further to see what would happen if she did. She let the while energy continue to wind itself up her arms until it passed her over shoulders and started crawling down her back. She made it look like white wings had sprouted from her back. It was absolutely amazing; she wondered just what else she could manipulate it into doing. She was about to test that theory out when suddenly something shifted inside of her.

She could feel that 'darkfire' was suddenly trying to desperately claw it's way to the surface. She could feel her emotions shifting and she tried so hard to stop it. She didn't even know why it was happening in the first place. 'Darkfire' usually only came out when something negative was forced onto her that made her emotions turn negative. Her emotions were positive so how could it be trying to come out now? Unless it was so apart of her that it just didn't matter what she was feeling. She couldn't stop herself from feeling such terrible fear at that thought. Maybe she would be stuck trying to keep 'darkfire' from coming out every time she tried to activate her powers. That thought terrified her even more. Looking down at her palms, she watched the white energy surrounding them start to turn purple and she began to panic too. She could feel that 'darkfire' was feeding off of her fear and panic.

A dark and seductive voice began to whisper things to her inside of her head.

" _ **Let me out**_." It whispered seductively.

Her violet eyes widened in horror. No, she couldn't do that. She refused to hurt Clint and Steve.

The voice was so insistent, it was begging and pleading. It felt like it was going to drive her insane.

" _ **Please, let me out. I promise to be good**_." It begged insistently.

She wanted to listen to it so badly, but she refused to let herself give in that easily.

" _Over my dead body._ " She snarled back to the voice inside of her head angrily.

The voice began to laugh darkly inside of her head and her violet eyes widened in fear. She looked at Steve and Clint helplessly.

" _ **Okay, have it your way then.**_ " The voice laughed darkly.

Before she could try to stop it, she fell to her knees and everything went dark.


	11. The Art of Letting Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hi everybody I am back from my hiatus! Thank you all for holding on while I sorted myself out. I am going through something very crappy with my downstairs neighbor who is a giant bully and writing has really been a great outlet to help be cope with it. So here you all go! A hot new chapter hot off the press! Again, thank your for your patience, the kudos(s), bookmarks and comments. I really hope you all enjoy this chapter.
> 
> Note: For those of you who are reading Practical Magic too, I am also working on that as well. You all can expect an update by the end of the weekend at some point!
> 
> Happy reading everybody!

_Steve_

Steve couldn't believe his eyes. Watching Charlie summon her powers was like nothing he had ever seen before. She concentrated hard and He watched as some kind of white energy began to crackle around her small palms. For a moment, she looked shocked that she could even summon her powers in the first place. After she got over her shock a bit, she concentrated even harder and the white energy began to move. He watched with fascination as the white energy materialized from her small palms. He watched the energy move from her palms to her arms up to her elbows and then over from her elbows to her shoulders. It continued to move along her shoulders and down until it reached her back. It took the form of something that looked like wings on her back and it made her look like a little angel. Watching her manipulate the white energy was absolutely mesmerizing. He could tell that Clint thought the same thing. He knew that he was right in his assessment that she was a very special little dame and this proved it. He continued to watch her manipulate the energy until something suddenly changed.

Charlie's facial expression suddenly changed from extreme concentration to utter and complete fear. Something very bad was happening. He knew that Clint could see it too. Her big violet eyes darkened until they were black and she started grabbing at the sides of her head. The energy crackling around her palms started turning purple and her energy wings started turning purple at the tips. He realized what was happening. 'Darkfire' was somehow trying to come out. He didn't even know how that was possible but he didn't know what else it could be.

He could see that she was desperately trying to stop it from happening. She was looking at both him and Clint completely helplessly. He turned to Clint and could see that he immediately wanted to jump into action and try to help her put 'Darkfire' away but he knew that he couldn't let him do that. She would tear him apart in the state she was in and she would never ever forgive herself for doing such a thing. He couldn't let that happen. He put his arm in front of Clint to stop him from going anywhere and Clint gave him a questioning look.

"Steve, what the hell?" Clint asked in shock.

He gave Clint a pleading look, hoping that he could get him to understand. He knew that Clint's instincts were screaming at him to go and help Charlie.

"Clint, I can't let you go to her when she is like this. She'll rip you apart and never forgive herself." He explained.

Clint made a face, it was clear that he wasn't happy about it but knew that he was right.

He and Clint both knew that Charlie's biggest fear was to hurt either of them with her powers, especially Clint. He could only imagine what would happen if or when she found out that she accidently let 'Darkfire' out and hurt him. Because Clint couldn't do it, he had to figure out a way to stop her somehow. Because of the super soldier serum running through his veins, he could get close to her without being ripped apart and had a fighting chance. He placed a hand on Clint's shoulder and gave him a reassuring look.

"Don't worry, I promise I will get her back to herself no matter what." He told Clint reassuringly.

Clint nodded and he slowly began to approach Charlie. She was still holding her head. As soon as she sensed that he was there, her head shot up and she looked at him. Her eyes were almost completely pitch black and it was clear that 'Darkfire' had almost taken over completely. She was grinning at him in a way that was unnatural and he didn't like it at all. He continued to try and approach her. She held up her hand and faced the palm of her hand towards him. The purple energy crackling around it began to increase drastically and her grin got wider. Without warning, she let loose the purple energy that had gathered around her palm and it hit him right square in the chest. It knocked him into the ground and knocked the wind out of him but he seemed other wise okay. He got back up and tried to approach her once more. There was no way in HELL that he was giving up.

She seemed shocked that he got up and was mostly un-harmed from the purple blast. She let out a distorted noise of shock. He remembered the video footage of her blowing away the two goons with a flick of her wrist. She probably expected the same thing to happen to him that happened to the goons. For the first time in his life, he was happy to have the super soldier serum running though his veins. He saw that purple energy had started to gather around her small palm once more and knew that he had to keep her distracted somehow other wise he would be hit again. He called out her name loudly hoping it would distract her from trying let loose another blast of energy and it worked better than he could have ever hoped.

"Charlie, stop it!" He yelled loudly.

His yell caused her stop what she was about to do and she focused all of her attention on him.

"Oh doll, I know it's so hard but you've got to fight 'Darkfire'. This isn't you at all, you can't let it win!" He coaxed gently.

He could see that she was trying so hard to listen to him but she was struggling. At the sound of his voice, she flinched and took a step back. She grabbed the sides of her head and let out a slightly distorted noise full of pain. He felt so awful standing there watching her struggle to put 'Darkfire' back from wherever it came from She was struggling so hard. He couldn't stand by and watch her any longer, he just had to do SOMETHING. As carefully as he could, he began to slowly approach her. She was still struggling with everything she had to push 'Darkfire' out. As soon as he got close enough to her, he reached out and gently touched the side of her face. At the touch, her dark eyes widened. He tried to relay all his emotions through the touch.

"Please Charlie, let it go for me and especially for Clint." He murmured softly, stroking the side of her face softly.

He could tell that the combination of his emotions and the gentle touch seemed to be helping a bit. He could see that her other mutations were trying to activate at the same time as well. She took a deep breath in and almost immediately something began to change inside of her. He realized that it was her feral mutation was trying to override 'Darkfire'. He was sure that it had something to do with the fact that her feral mutation had somehow 'imprinted' on him all those days ago.

He continued his gentle ministrations on the side of her face and he could tell that she was finally coming back to herself a little bit. He had never felt so relieved in all his life. He watched her inhale deeply once more and then she let out a distorted purr. As she continued to come back to herself, her big violet eyes turned cat-like momentarily and then they slowly returned to normal. The purple energy around her palms and her wings also slowly started to return to normal and then it started to melt away all together. It was becoming very clear that she was beginning to realize what had happened.

She looked at him with such shame and big fat tears began to roll down her cheeks. Before she could do anything however, her legs began to give out from under her. He caught her before she could hit the ground. She let out a soft, slightly distorted sigh and buried her face into his chest. He could feel her tears soaking through his shirt and let out his own soft sigh. He could tell how much this entire ordeal took out of her. She was distraught and exhausted. Clearly, it wasn't going to be very easy to work out Charlie's powers because 'Darkfire' was far more a part of than either of them thought but right now he was more concerned about Charlie's wellbeing more than anything. He would think more about that later.

He could feel that she was beginning to pass out in his arms. Oh, his poor sweet little doll.

Gently, he scooped her up and carried her over to Clint who looked extremely relieved that she was back to being Charlie and that 'Darkfire' was long gone for now. Clint gave him a grateful look.

"I don't know you managed to do it Steve, but thank you for bringing her back from the brink." Clint told him gratefully.

He shrugged off Clint's gratefulness, he was just happy he managed do it in the first place. He couldn't even imagine her being lost to that thing forever.

"Of course, I'm just happy I was able to do it at all." He replied.

Clint held out his arms to take her from him and he hesitated for a moment. For some reason, he didn't want to give her to Clint just yet. He was feeling very protective of her suddenly. More so than usual and he had a feeling that it had something to do with the fact Charlie's feral mutation had 'imprinted' on him. Somehow, it was starting to affect him too. Oh, this was so very bad. He had to put it away somehow before Clint realized that something was off with him. As gently as he could, he handed Charlie to Clint. He inwardly sighed, why did everything have to be so complicated all the time? He watched Clint coddle Charlie for a moment and again fought against another sudden jolt of possessiveness and protectiveness that seemed to come out of nowhere.

He inwardly sighed, he knew that nothing more could be done about the situation until Charlie woke up. Besides, he knew that she was going to be okay now and she was in safe hands. Even though he really didn't want to leave her, he knew that it would be a wise idea to go back his apartment and sort himself out before any else he couldn't control started happening. After bidding Clint goodbye, he left the gym and walked slowly back to his small apartment.

He couldn't stop thinking about whatever it was that was happening to him. He could only hope that it didn't get any worse and that Clint would never find out about it because if he did everything would go straight to hell in a handbasket.

_Clint_

Watching Steve's retreating back, Clint quirked a brow. There was something definitely going on with him but he wasn't exactly sure just what it was. He hoped it had something to do with what they just both witnessed. Whatever it was, he would have to think about it later. All he wanted to do was get Charlie back to his apartment so she could sleep off what just happened to her comfortably. He wasted no time in leaving the gym and carrying her back to his small apartment. Thankfully, he managed to get back to his apartment without encountering any roadblocks.

' _Thank god for small miracles_ ' He thought with relief.

After re-adjusting Charlie in his arms, he managed to get the door open. He re-adjusted her once more and entered the small space. He went to her room and entered it. He placed her down onto her bed and went about making her a bit more comfortable. After he took off her shoes and socks, he got her under the covers and then covered her up. For a moment, he internally debated whether he should try and get her into some pyjamas or not and then he decided against it. While he knew that she trusted him, knowing that he changed her clothes while she was passed out cold might be a little much for her to handle still.

He watched her sleep for a moment. Letting out a soft sigh, he gently pushed her hair out of her face and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

' _Oh, my sweet Charlie girl, what am I going to do with you_?' He though to himself.

After he was satisfied that she was okay, he left the room so she could sleep in piece. Entering his tiny kitchen, he opened the fridge and pulled out a beer. After everything that he just went through, he really needed to sit down and unwind a bit before he attempted to sleep. Opening his junk drawer, he pulled out a bottle opener and opened his beer. He threw the bottle opener on the counter in case he wanted more than on beer and went to go sit down on his couch. He ran his free through his messy blond hair and then took a large swig of his beer. Just what in the hell was he going to do with this situation?

No matter what, he knew that he would figure out a way to help her somehow. He refused to be just like all the assholes who abandoned her when the going got tough. He was her guardian but he knew that somewhere a long the way it had become more than that. She had become his daughter in every way but blood and he would help her no matter what it took.

Five Hours Later

_Charlie_

Charlie's violet eyes fluttered open and she let out a low, pain filled groan. Pushing herself up in a sitting position slowly, she looked around and realized that she was no longer in the gym but somehow ended up in her bed in Clint's apartment. For a moment, she sat there and wondered just what it the hell happened to her until it began coming back to her slowly. She remembered being in the gym with Clint and Steve. She remembered trying to activate her powers for them and then she remembered feeling that 'darkfire' was trying to get into her head. She realized that 'darkfire' must have some how taken over. Immediately, she began to panic what if she hurt Steve or Clint? She tried so hard to remember more of what happened but everything felt so fuzzy. She couldn't remember hurting Clint at all but she wasn't sure about Steve.

As she sat there trying to remember what happened to Steve, she suddenly heard Clint yelling about something. Realizing that something was wrong, she wasted no time in getting out of bed to go see what the matter was. In her haste to leave, she got her feet caught in her blankets and almost fell onto the ground. After she managed to detangle herself, left the room as quickly as she as she could and went to go find Clint. She found him pacing in the kitchen with his cell phone clenched tightly in his right hand. Clearly, somebody had just called him and whatever it was that they said made him very angry. She wasted no time in going to him, she had to calm him down before he crushed his phone or something else bad happened. She reached out and gently touched his arm.

Immediately, he turned is attention to her and she could feel that most of his anger had begun to melt away. He gave her a tender look and took her small hand in his free one.

"Hey sweetness, I am so happy to see you up. How are you feeling?" He asked softly.

She gave him a look. She didn't want to talk about what happened to her right now. She really wanted to know what was the matter with him.

' _I'm okay Clint, I promise. What happened? Why are you so angry?_ ' She murmured inside of his head.

He sighed, and she could tell by is emotions that he had no idea how to even begin explaining what the matter was to her. She was beginning to get worried and she didn't like it at all.

"Charlie baby, I think we should sit down before I explain to you what the phone call was about. Alright?" He told her gently.

Immediately, alarm bells started going off in her mind. She knew that Clint was going to tell her something that she wasn't going to like at all. She let him gently lead her to the couch and they sat down. He never once let go of her hand and he was looking at her with a look in his ocean eyes that broke her heart a little bit. He was scaring her a little bit. She knew that he could tell that he was and he was doing everything he could to keep her calm. She could tell that he was having difficulty figuring out where to begin.

"Charlie do you remember what I taught you about S.H.E.I.L.D and how this place works? You know that just like a lot of other people here I am an agent too, right? Just like Natasha and just like my friend Maria Hill." He explained and at her nod of understanding he continued. "Good, well that phone call was somebody telling me that they have a new mission ready for me and I will have to leave to carry it out later today."

She sat there trying to process what he was telling her. That meant that he would have to leave her for she didn't even know how long. After what happened to her yesterday, she didn't even know if she could handle that. She looked at him with huge violet eyes.

' _But, I don't want you to go anywhere_.' She murmured to him softly inside his head.

He gave her a tender look and cupped the side of her face with his large hand.

"Oh sweetness, I know. I wish I didn't have to either. Especially after what happened yesterday." He murmured back to her.

She could feel the tears welling in the corners of her violet eyes, with out much warning she just about threw herself at Clint. She just couldn't help it. For a moment, he stiffened in shock not expecting her to do such a thing and then relaxed completely. He gently wrapped his arms around her and she nuzzled into his chest. She grabbed onto a fist full of his shirt determined to keep him with her as long as she possibly could. She probably looked like a mess in yesterday's clothes and probably didn't smell that good either but she didn't care. She could feel that Clint was rubbing her back and it relaxed her greatly. So much so that she felt herself drifting between awake and asleep. She enjoyed Clint's ministrations for a while before a question suddenly popped into her head. She looked up at Clint and gently touched his upper arm.

' _How long will you be gone for?_ ' She asked softly in his head.

He gave her gentle look and moved his hand from her back to her head so he could push her hair out of her face.

"About three days or so." He told her gently.

She wrinkled her small nose. Three days was better than a week but she hated it and she knew that he could tell that. She sighed and buried her head in his chest once more. He let out a soft chuckle. He continued to sooth her for quite some time and she enjoyed every minute until she felt him begin to nudge her gently. She made a little distorted noise of protest.

"Come on, sweetness. I know it sucks but I need to get my stuff together." He mumbled softly into her hair.

She protested for a few more minutes and then finally let him up. While he was getting his stuff together, she decided to get herself cleaned up too. She couldn't stand being in yesterday's clothes anymore. She slowly dragged herself to her room. She wasted no time in entering her small bathroom and stripping. She turned on her shower and waited for it to get to the right temperature. After it did, she hoped in and started cleaning herself up. She also washed out her hair. After she was finished, she felt so much better. Turning the shower off, she hoped out and dried herself off. Exiting the bathroom, she looked through her stuff for a clean pair of pyjama bottoms and tank top. She found a bra too of course.

After she changed, she went to go and find Clint. She didn't want to miss the chance to say goodbye to him. She found him in his room still getting his stuff all together. She watched him for a moment and then approached him from behind. She wrapped her arms around him from behind and buried her face into his back. He stopped what he was doing for a moment and turned around. He wrapped his arms around her and she re-buried her face into his chest. She could hear his heart beating against her cheek. It soothed her immensely. It was going to be so hard for her to be without him even for just three days.

' _I can do this._ ' She repeated in her mind over and over again like a mantra.

Despite what happened yesterday, she had come so far in such a small period of time. She couldn't give up now.


	12. Memories and Intruders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY everybody! Okay first things first, again I apologize for the wait for this update I really do. Again, it is never on purpose I promise. If you can all believe this shit I am still dealing with my downstairs neighbor I swear she woman is mentally unstable or something. This is turning into the saga from hell. Also, as you can all see I have started my own original story and it's call Misfits! My dream is to get a work published and Misfits is my first stab writing something original! If you could all maybe check the out on the way out of here I would be so eternally grateful! It is also on Fictionpress under the pen name ryucrisis as well! Thank you for listening and now on with the show! Also a quick thank you to everybody who left something on the way out of here last time and all the times before that you all rule! 
> 
> Note: To those of you reading Practical Magic as well, that as well as another chapter of Misfits is what I am working on next so stay tuned for that! 
> 
> Now on with the show!

_Charlie_

Charlie let out a distorted sigh, it had barely been 5 hours since Clint had left for his mission and she already missed him terribly. She was trying to so hard to keep herself distracted but it felt like it was damn near impossible to do so. She tried distracting herself with movies when that it didn't work, she tried playing video games and that wasn't any better either. Everything reminded her of Clint, it was enough to drive her mad. Hell, she even tried cooking and that didn't even do anything either. She had to think of SOMETHING to do, she didn't want to spend three days pacing and waiting for Clint to get back.

Her violet eyes landed on Clint's computer sitting on the kitchen table and an idea suddenly popped into her head. She had been thinking of her past and the special school that she went all those years ago. She really wanted to know her past and to find out where she came from. Because the short man shot her so many times in the head with silver bullets, most of her memories before she was captured and experimented on were either all garbled up or completely gone all together. It was extremely frustrating to her. Recently, some of her memories had been trying to resurface in her dreams. None of them were very clear still but she did remember what the special school she attended before she was captured was called. It was called  _Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children_. She hoped that by using Clint's computer to find out a little more about it, that it would also jog her memory more at the same time. At this point, anything was better than losing her mind thinking about Clint.

She went and sat down at the kitchen table. She opened the lid of Clint's laptop and booted it up. As she watched it boot up, her violet eyes landed on the nameless folder in the corner of Clint's desktop and her curiosity was piqued. She had noticed the un-named file the last time she and Clint used his computer together and wondered what was in it. For a split second, her curiosity just about got the better of her and she almost clicked on the file but then she decided against it. There was no telling what she would find in there, she was petrified that she would undo all her hard work at getting over what happened to her.

Instead, she clicked on the internet and entered  _Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children_ into the search bar and she was surprised to see that the school had its own website. She clicked on it. She looked around the website for bit and then came across a list of the teachers who taught there. This piqued her interest, she decided to click on the list of teachers maybe one of them would jog her memory. She looked through the list and none of the teachers stood out to her until her violet eyes landed on the name 'Dr. Hank McCoy'. She didn't know why, but that name sounded familiar. She clicked on it to see what would come up. A picture of a blue hairy man popped up with a bunch of information to go with it.

For the moment, her violet eyes were glued to the picture and she ignored the information. She didn't know how but she knew that here was something familiar about the hair blue man but she couldn't put her finger on it. She was certain that she once knew him when she went to the school and that he was very important to her at one time. Suddenly, she could feel a memory desperately trying to re-surface and she couldn't stop it.

_Memory_

_10-year-old Charlie was surrounded by older boys and they were taunting her trying to get her to activate her powers. Even in a place meant to be a safe haven for mutant kids she still somehow managed to be bullied about her mutation and it was all because her mutation didn't work like theirs did. She did everything she could to get away without hurting them even though they didn't deserve it at all. She could feel her powers trying to so desperately to activate and she was trying to tamp it down. She knew that it would just make everything so much worse if she did. Instead, she just ran away as fast as she could and hoped that the boys wouldn't be able to catch her. Somehow, it worked and she somehow managed to get away from them. Luck was on her side for a change._

_She entered the school and walked until she reached the medical lab. She entered the medical lab in hopes of finding Dr. McCoy. He always treated her nicely and didn't care that her mutation was all weird. Sure enough, he was sitting at his desk pouring over a book. As soon as She entered the room, his head shot up from his book and smiled at her. As soon as he got a good look at her, his smile vanished._

_Immediately, he got up from his chair and came to her._

" _Oh my stars and garters! Charlie, what happened to you?" He asked worriedly._

_She had no idea what to tell him. She was so ashamed that she was letting those boys bully her in the first place. She looked away, she just couldn't force herself to look him in the eyes. She heard him sigh softly. She could tell that he worked out in his head what happened to her._

" _Charlie, were those boys bullying you again? You know that you are going to have to tell the professor about this." He told her gently._

_Immediately, her head shot up and she looked at him with huge violet eyes._

" _Oh no, please don't make me do that! It'll just make it worse!" She begged._

_He gave her a gentle look and crouched down in front of her. He placed one of his big blue furry hands on her shoulder in a comforting manner._

" _I know it's very frightening for you, but I promise you that talking to the professor will not make it worse. This place is meant to be a save haven for you and if those boys are hurting you then something needs to be done about it. Will it help you if I'm there with you when you do it?" He coaxed._

_For a moment, she mulled over in her head what he just told her. She knew that Dr. McCoy was right, this was place was supposed to be a safe haven for her and she couldn't keep going on the way that she was going. He was looking at her with kind eyes, she knew that he was just trying to help her._

_Finally, she relented and nodded._

" _Alright, I'll talk to the professor about it." She muttered softly._

_He smiled warmly at her, she could feel how happy he was that she agreed to talk to the professor about the boys. She could feel that he actually did care about what happened to her and really did want to help her._

" _Good girl, now come with me and we'll get those legs of yours all cleaned up for you." He said, gesturing for her to follow him._

_He led her to his medical examination table and help her get up onto it. She sat down and waited patiently while he went to locate some supplies to clean her wounded legs with. They really took a beating when those boys pushed her onto the ground. Moments later, he returned with the supplies and began doctoring up her legs. She watched him as he worked, occasionally wincing whenever he hit a sensitive spot. Up until now, nobody really cared what happened to her because of her weird mutation. Now that somebody did, she decided that she sort of liked it and kind of hoped that it never changed._

_End Memory_

Charlie shook herself from the memory violently. She could feel the tears pricking at the corners of her violet eyes. It felt like her heart had been ripped open from that memory. It was very clear that somebody from that school DID in fact care about her a lot so why in the HELL did nobody try and find her when was captured? Thinking about it made her head hurt and her heart hurt even more. She decided that she was done looking for information for the moment and shut down Clint's laptop and closed the lid gently. For the first time in a very long time, she was so upset that she didn't want to be alone. She couldn't remember the last time that happened. The fact that Clint wasn't here to help her made everything ten times worse. She had to do something.

Suddenly, a crazy idea popped into her head. She just realized that she really had no clue what happened to Steve after she lost control of 'Darkfire'. Maybe she could go to his apartment and find out if he was okay or not. At this point, anything was better than being this miserable all by herself. After she closed the lid of Clint's laptop, she got up from the kitchen table and went to her room to get cleaned up a little bit. She decided to leave her pyjama pants on but she put on a bra and threw a hoodie on over her tank top. She decided that she looked good enough and left her room. She grabbed Clint's spare key so she could get back into the apartment later and then she left Clint's apartment.

This was her very first time venturing outside of Clint's apartment without Clint by her side and she was extremely nervous but she just couldn't stand being alone anymore. She walked quietly down the hallway making sure to dodge every person she came across. She wasn't sure who knew about her and didn't really want to have to answer any questions about where she came from or why she was there. It didn't take her long to start picking up Steve's scent at all and it made her inner beast come to life. She couldn't help the purr the erupted from her chest, her inner best was very excited to see him. She followed his scent and as it got stronger she began to smell another scent mixed in with it. This scent was female and immediately she felt a jolt of possessiveness run through her. Her feral mutation was driving her to find his apartment so she could find this woman and destroy her. It was driving her to protect what belonged to her. She tried to tamp it down the best that she could. She finally found Steve's apartment and was shocked to hear yelling coming from it.

Again, she felt her feral mutation try come to life and she exercised extreme self control. It was begging to protect her mate, whatever that meant. Before she could do anything about it however, the door to Steve's apartment swung open and a lady with blond hair stepped out. She could feel the anger just dripping from this lady's pores. She was getting ready to stomp off when Steve exited the apartment after her. She could tell that he was trying to calm her down and explain…something to her. She could feel her instincts kick into over drive and she struggled to keep them under control. Her sensitive hearing picked up what they were saying. It was clear that Steve was trying to make the lady understand something.

"Sharon, I'm sorry things happened this way, I really am but's something I just can't change." Steve tried to explain.

It was clear that the lady was having none of what he was trying to tell her.

"This is complete bullshit Steve; a person just can't change another person that completely in little over a week it just doesn't work that way!" The lady named Sharon yelled.

She could tell how desperate that Steve was to make Sharon understand what he was trying to explain to her but she had a feeling that it wasn't going to happen.

"I know it's hard to understand, I get that but this is anything but normal. She's a mutant and I can't just never see her again!" He yelled back.

Her violet eyes widened in shock. She realized very quickly that they were talking about her. She felt awful, all of this was happening because of her and her stupid feral mutation imprinting on Steve. She had no idea what to do, there was nothing she could do to fix this. She didn't need her mutation to tell her how angry Sharon was.

"I can't BELIEVE you are going throw away everything we have for a stupid, broken mutant girl. Whatever it is that her mutation did to you Steve, it isn't even Real!" Sharon hissed.

Immediately, Steve's entire demeanor changed. He became deadly silent. She could feel the protectiveness just dripping from him. It took no time at all for Sharon to realize that she said the wrong thing. She tried backtracking, but it was far too late for that.

"Steve, I…" Sharon Started but Steve cut her off.

"Sharon, I think you should leave now." He stated without a hint of emotion.

"But…" She tried again.

She watched Steve give Sharon a hard look. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"I said please go!" He repeated.

She watched as Sharon did as he asked of her. She wordlessly turned around and thankfully left in the opposite direction of her. The last thing she wanted was to have a confrontation with this woman when it was her that she and Steve were so obviously fighting about. After Sharon left, she watched Steve re-enter his apartment and shut the door behind him. She inwardly sighed, she had no idea she would do now. For a split second, she wondered if she would be better off just going back to Clint's apartment and then she thought of being alone. She shuttered, the last thing she wanted was to be alone at the moment.

Gathering every ounce of bravery she had, she slowly approached Steve's apartment door and knocked on it softly. She heard some shuffling and then loud footsteps. Suddenly, the door swung open and there stood Steve looking severely annoyed.

"Sharon I swear…" He started and the trailed off when he realized that it was her standing at his door and not Sharon.

Seeing that it was her and not Sharon standing there, his annoyance melted away quickly and was replaced with shock.

"Doll, what are you doing here?" He asked in shock.

She reached for his hand and he gladly gave it to her so she could try to explain it to him.

" _Clint is gone on a mission, so I decided that I would do a little research on the school I went to before I was captured. I saw something and it…triggered a memory. The memory really upset me and I didn't want to be alone anymore. I wanted to know if 'Darkfire' hurt you or not so I decided to come and see you so I could find out."_ She murmured gently inside of his head.

" _I'm…sorry I ruined your relationship._ " She added softly.

She could feel the tears pricking at the corners of her violet eyes and she couldn't help but look away in embarrassment. Steve let go of her hand and gently cupped each side of her face with his large hands. He wiped away the big fat tears that rolled down her face. She couldn't help but enjoy the touch immensely.

"Oh doll, I'm so sorry that you had to hear all of that. None of it is your fault I promise." He reassured.

For some reason, hearing this only made her cry harder. She didn't know if it was because she was overwhelmed with everything or what, but Steve seemed to know what to do. Gently, he scooped her into his arms and brought her into his apartment. She let out a shocked, distorted squeak at being suddenly displaced and her small hands grabbed fists full of his shirt. He carried her to his couch and sat down her with her comfortably nestled in his lap. Being in Steve's lap felt very different than being in Clint's but she found that she really enjoyed it. She felt safe and protected. He continued to try and sooth her and she began to calm down a little bit.

Finally, she felt that she had calmed down enough that she could show Steve the memory of Dr. McCoy. She gestured for his hand and he complied readily and gave it too her. While looking at him straight in the eyes, she showed him the entire memory from start to finish. As she did so, she could feel the gentle understanding just oozing from his emotions. He understood why the memory devastated her so much. She still didn't understand why nobody tried to find her at all if they cared about her so much she couldn't help but voice the question to Steve.

" _If somebody cared about me so much, why didn't they try to find me?_ " She asked him softly inside of his mind.

He gave her a tender look and pushed her messy hair out of her face. She could tell that he was trying to find the right thing to say to her. She knew that it wasn't an easy question to answer by any stretch of the imagination.

"Oh sweetness, I wish I knew. I promise you that Clint and I will find out why. I know it's hard but try not to think about it for now. You are exhausted." He coaxed gently.

Steve was absolutely right not only did she feel awful but she did feel exhausted too. All of this was very hard on her and top of all of everything she still missed Clint terribly. She tried to calm herself down but it was proving easier said than done. She could tell that Steve could sense this through the connection that they currently shared. He started stroking her lower back languidly and she felt herself melt into him a little bit more. She could feel herself finally starting to relax and her exhaustion started catching up to her. As Steve continued his calming ministrations on her back, she felt herself drift of to sleep.

_Steve_

Steve couldn't believe what had just transpired in the short span of 30 or so minutes. He had not expected at all to have Charlie show up at his apartment so distraught. He knew that Clint had been sent away on a mission and had been debating all day whether or not he should go check up on her and then Sharon showed up. After his first encounter with Charlie, he had realized very quickly that it wouldn't be fair to Sharon to continue their relationship. He tried to explain to her why this was many times but he just couldn't get her to understand.

When she told him that Charlie was just simply trying to manipulate him with her mutation, he couldn't contain his anger any longer at her accusations and had to make her leave. The last thing that he wanted was to have Charlie hear all of that because none of it was true. Yes, her feral mutation imprinted on him but that wasn't only reason he was sticking around her. She had wormed her way into his heart and he genuinely wanted to help her. She was so very special and after everything that happened to her, she deserved to be cared for and loved so unconditionally.

He sighed softly, when he started a relationship with Sharon, he hoped that it would give him a piece of Peggy back. The more he got to know Sharon, the more he realized that he had made a mistake. Peggy was kind, strong and compassionate and while Sharon was strong she was not like Peggy at all but he was so desperate to have a part of Peggy back that he didn't care about any of that. It wasn't at all fair to Sharon and she had every right to be angry at him but when she started saying those things about Charlie it was like some sort of switch had flipped and he had to defend her. He knew that this was because of the feral imprint thing whatever it was. It was getting stronger. He couldn't even imagine what would happen if Clint found out but there was no way he could stop it now.

He looked down at Charlie and gave her a tender look. She was fast asleep with her face buried into his chest. He moved his hand from her lower back to the top of her head so he could gently push the hair from her face. Whatever happened he would be there for her but hopefully he could somehow get Clint to understand it and it would never come to that.

Hours Later

_Charlie_

Suddenly, Charlie was awoken by a weird noise that she had never heard before. Waking up a little more, she realized that she was still in nestled in Steve's arms on the couch and he was sleeping soundly above her. She could sense that something wasn't right and her feral mutation kicked into high gear. She sniffed that air gently and caught an unfamiliar scent. She realized that somebody was in the apartment with her and Steve. She felt her feral mutation activate all of the way and she tried to wriggle free from Steve's arms without waking him up.

After she managed to free herself, she got up to and to try and find the source of the scent. Her feral mutation had taken over her completely and it was driving her to protect herself and Steve from what it perceived as a threat. Her sensitive hearing picked up another noise and she whirled around quickly. She was not expecting to just about come face to chest with a man that had a metal arm and the most piercing blue eyes she had ever seen. They were staring at her emotionlessly.

She bared her fangs at the man. She crouched down low ready to attack him. Just as she sprang forward she heard Steve call out to her. She knew that the sudden commotion must have woken him up.

"Charlie, don't!" He yelled loudly.


	13. Brave Little Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey everybody! I hope you all like this chapter! I decided that I didn’t want Charlie to have the same reaction to Bucky as she did to Steve because I think that would be too expected and I am all about doing things a little differently so I really hope everybody loves the this chapter! As always thank you for the great feedback and if it could be kept up that would be greatly appreciated! I hope everybody likes this chapter!
> 
> Happy reading everybody!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own noooooooooothing.

_ Charlie _

Charlie heard Steve yell her name but she just couldn’t stop herself from lunging at this strange man. He was in what she considered to be her territory and she hated it.  Unfortunately, he was much stronger than she thought he was and swatted her out of the air like a fly with his metal arm. What in the hell was this guy? Before she could even get up and try to defend herself, he was on top of her. This was the first time that she encountered somebody who could move as fast as she could and it was unnerving to say the least. As he tried to pin her to the ground, his skin came in contact with hers and she was assaulted with his memories.

This was part of her mutation that she tried to hide from her handlers as much as possible so they couldn’t use it against her. If they had found out about it, they would have most likely figure out a way to use it against her or tried to punish her with it. It was already bad enough that whenever the short man, his goons or Victor touched her long enough she always caught snippets of their memories. She couldn’t imagine the short man forcing her to do it to obtain information from somebody.

Having it forced upon her now was bad enough, it was clear that this man had went through something similar to her. His memories were awful and now they would be forever seared into her mind. They were a little garbled, but she could see that his handlers had strapped him to something bad, it was some kind of device that literally shocked him until his memories were wiped clean. She could feel his pain, it felt so awful and she just couldn’t stand it anymore. She did everything she could to get away from him. Steve jumped into action an got him off of her as quickly as he could.

It was clear that the strange man wanted nothing more than to attack her again but thankfully Steve was able to hold him back from doing so. She was grateful for that because had seen enough of his memories to last her a life time. The strange man continued to glare and her and she bared her fangs right back. She still felt that he was in what she considered her territory and she wanted him out of it. He smelt funny and she didn’t like it. Again, he tried to get free from Steve’s grip but Steve held on tight and managed to hold him in place.

“No Bucky, she is not your enemy, you have to stand down now!” He ordered.

Her violet eyes widened in shock, she realized that Steve knew this strange man. Why did that somehow make everything feel worse?

The strange man that she now knew to be Bucky looked at Steve incredulously as if to say ‘are you serious? She attacked me first!’ Steve merely crossed his arms and shook his head ‘no’.

Now that everything had calmed down some, Steve came to check to make sure that she was okay and she flinched away from him without really meaning to. He looked at her with shock. It wasn’t his fault but she just couldn’t help it right now. She had too many memories floating around in her head and she didn’t want anymore. The imprint was begging her to go to him, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Normally, she just tuned out the random memories that she ended up seeing whenever she touched Clint or Steve but she just couldn’t handle any more at the moment.

Realizing that Bucky wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, she decided that it would best for her to go back to Clint’s apartment so she could try and deal with the memories floating around in her head however much it would upset Steve. She just didn’t feel like trying to explain to him what was happening to her. This was part of her powers she hadn’t even begun trying to even explain to Clint yet because of everything else that had been going on.

Even though her inner beast was begging her not to, she turned to leave Steve’s apartment. Of course, as she did this he immediately began to protest but she ignored it to the best of her abilities and left the apartment before she changed her mind.

She let out a small, distorted sigh. For the first time in a long while it felt like she finally had some kind of semblance of normalcy in her life.

Now, it suddenly felt as if her entire life had just imploded on itself all over again.

_ Steve _

Steve watched Charlie leave his apartment and let out a long sigh. He knew that no matter how much he protested that it wouldn’t make Charlie stay, no matter how much he wanted her to stay. Because she had been through so much, she still couldn’t handle it very well when she had stressful situations were just thrown at her. Plus, she was already dealing with the memory that she had shared with him earlier. All he wanted to do at the moment was go to her and make sure that she was okay. He knew that part if it was probably the imprint talking but that didn’t matter to him. She had become so important to him in such a short time imprint or not and it was killing him not knowing whether she was okay or not. The last thing he wanted was for her to try and deal with just happened alone but Bucky was just as important to him too. He ran a hand through his messy blond hair, he had no idea how he was going to sort this mess out or make it work but he would figure out away or another.

His thoughts were interrupted when Bucky suddenly spoke next to him.

“So, was she your girlfriend or something?” Bucky asked with hints of curiosity in his voice.

“I don’t remember much, but you don’t strike me as somebody who would date a dame like that.” He added.

He looked at Bucky in shock at what he just said. That was something the real Bucky would say and it gave him a tiny sliver of hope. Maybe his best friend was still in there somewhere after all.

He fought to keep a blush from crawling up his neck and onto his cheeks. He had no idea how to go about explaining such a messed up situation to Bucky, he wondered whether or not Bucky was even in the right mind frame understand it right now anyway. He decided that it would be best to leave that whole situation for another time and instead concentrate on why Bucky decided to suddenly drop into his apartment in the first place.

"Um, it’s a whole complicated mess best left for another time. Bucky, why did you suddenly decide to just show up here?” He asked gently.

At his question, Bucky’s entire demeanor suddenly shifted. He didn’t quite become the assassin again but this wasn’t best friend Bucky either. This was something in between the two. He looked almost vulnerable or something. It was a term that he never thought he would associate with Bucky but he had no idea how else to describe it. He didn’t like it at all.

“I don’t remember anything, I barely remember who I am but I some how remembered you. I don’t remember much, but I knew were friends once. I thought you might be able to help. I didn’t know where else to go.” Bucky admitted softly.

At Bucky’s admittance, he felt awful for him. He couldn’t imagine how confused and scared Bucky must be feeling. There was no way he could leave Bucky to try and deal with this on his own. Immediately, he was reminded of his poor little doll. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. He had no idea if it was going to work, or if Charlie would even agree to such a thing but he had to try. Charlie was the only one who had remotely any idea what Bucky was going through. Maybe they could end up helping each other out somehow. Bucky might be able to even help track down the people that experimented on her.

Right now, he decided that the best course of action would be to get Bucky settled and then he would he would go and try to talk to Charlie. He placed a gentle hand on Bucky’s shoulder and Bucky gave him a startled look.

“It’s okay Bucky, go ahead and get cleaned up. I have some spare clothes that you can use in my closet.” He told him, gesturing in the direction of his room.

Bucky nodded and left the room to go and get cleaned up. Now that he dealt with Bucky, he left his apartment to go and find Charlie. He had an idea where she would be. He went to Clint’s apartment, he knew that Charlie would go where she felt the most comfortable and safe. About half way there, he started really thinking about Clint and he grimaced to himself. He knew that Clint was going to figure out a way to kill him for all of this, possibly repeatedly. For now, he put the thought out of his mind and entered Clint’s apartment, making sure that Charlie was okay was his top priority at the moment.

Both the living room and kitchen were empty, he checked the bathroom and she wasn’t in there either. That meant that she had to be in one of the bedrooms. First, he checked the one that he assumed to be hers and she wasn’t in there. That left only Clint’s room, for some reason the thought of her being in there sent a possessive jolt through his system. He knew that it was the imprint talking again and he pushed the feeling aside he knew it would do him no good now anyway. He knew that Charlie most likely chose to go to Clint’s room instead of her own because it was saturated with Clint’s scent and she needed the comfort.

He pushed the door open and saw that Charlie was all curled up on Clint’s bed. His sensitive hearing could detect that she wasn’t asleep. He approached her as carefully as he could.

“Doll?” He murmured softly.

Immediately, she sat up and turned in his direction. She wasted no time in reaching out for him and he closed the distance between them.

_ Charlie _

As soon as Steve entered the room, she could smell him. It almost overwhelmed Clint’s clean scent. Hearing him call her, she immediately got up and turned to face him. He was looking at her so gently and she couldn’t help but reach out to him. He crouched drown in front of her and gently took her hand in his. He emotions were so gentle and caring. Not only could she feel his emotions but she could see some of his memories too. Fortunately, because she was expecting it to happen, she easily blocked them out and instead concentrated on his emotions.

“Oh doll, are you okay?” He asked softly.

She nodded softly and gave his hand a little squeeze.

“ _I’m okay Steve, I promise._ ” She told him gently inside of his head.

Steve let out a relieved sigh and stroked her small hand in his larger one. She couldn’t help but enjoy the sensation immensely.

“Good, look I am so sorry all of that even happened in the first place. I didn’t expect Bucky just to show up like that. I’m sorry he scared you but I promise he won’t hurt you.” He reassured.

Even though she knew that he was just trying to reassure her, she couldn’t help but freeze a little bit at what Steve said. She knew that it meant that Bucky wasn’t going anywhere any time soon and the thought of that sent her instincts on edge because they didn’t want him there but she understood why Steve wanted to help him so badly. From Bucky’s memories as messed up as they were, she knew that they knew each other even before Steve became Captain America and Steve was way too kind hearted to leave him to suffer on his own.

She let out a soft, slightly distorted sigh.

“ _It’s okay Steve, I understand._ ” She mumbled softly inside of his head.

Steve looked at her with shock probably wondering just HOW she could understand any of it without him telling her anything. She knew that she had little choice but to tell him about her ability to ‘absorb’ people’s memories. Sooner or later, either he or Clint would have found out about somehow anyway. She just hoped that he wouldn’t be too angry with her. With all of the stuff that she had been dealing with lately, she didn’t think she could handle Steve being angry with her too.

“ _Um look, there are parts of my powers that I’ve kept…hidden from my handlers because I was so scared that they would use them against me. The biggest one being that I can ‘absorb’ people’s memories through touch. I don’t know how it works, it just sort of happens every time I touch somebody. With you and Clint, I know it’s coming so I can usually tune it out. With Bucky, I couldn’t. I saw what happened to him._ ” She explained.

For a moment Steve continued to stare at her in shock wordlessly, and she wondered if she did the wrong thing by telling him ability in the first place. Immediately, she tried to back track and sever the connection between them.

“ _I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have a said anything._ ” She muttered softly.

She tried to pull her hand away but Steve wouldn’t let her. Instead, he jerked her closer to himself and wrapped his arms around her. She let out a little shocked, distorted squeak at being suddenly displaced. After she got over the shock of being suddenly displaced, she couldn’t help but melt into him and inhale his scent. It made her inner beast purr.

“No doll, I’m sorry about what you’ve had to go through and I understand why you felt the need to hide that part of your powers.” He mumbled into her hair.

She nodded into his chest and enjoyed the sensation of being in his arms for a moment. They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment until suddenly his emotions began to shift and she could tell he was trying to figure out the best way to ask her something without accidently scaring her away or something. She began to get a little nervous, she wondered what in the hell he could ask her that had the potential to scare her away that badly?

He pulled away slightly and had a look on his face that she did quite know how to describe. She didn’t like it at all.

“Sweetness, I want to ask you something. You have very right to tell me no, alright?” He told her seriously.

She hesitated for a moment and then nodded. She had a feeling that she wasn’t going to like what he was about to ask of her at all.

“You are the only who remotely has any idea of what Bucky went through. I was wondering if you could try and talk to him?” He asked awkwardly.

Immediately, she stiffened and backed away from him a bit.

Despite the awkwardness of how he asked it, she knew exactly what Steve wanted her to do. Steve wanted her to try and somehow help him with Bucky because she understood what had happened to him in a way and that it would probably involve the use of her powers in some way. Suddenly, she felt so angry at Steve that he would even ask her such a thing in the first place. She had gone through so much already and was now just starting to feel somewhat normal again. How could he even think to ask such a thing from her? She never wanted Clint more than she did right now.

A huge part of her wanted to tell Steve to get out and never come back and that she and Clint would figure everything out without him but the thought of never seeing Steve again felt like agony to her inner beast. She knew it was because of the stupid imprint. For the first time, she was sorry it happened in the first place. Right after the thought of wishing the imprint never happened slipped into her mind, she already regretted thinking it. The thought of never seeing Steve again was just as bad as never seeing Clint again and a tiny little part of her understood why asked her to try and help Bucky even if she hated it. He had gone through the same thing she had, had his mind ripped apart, been experimented on and turned into a monster. Just like her. She thought of Bucky’s memories and what happened to him. She thought about what she went through. Even though she didn’t like Bucky, nobody deserved to go through what he did or what she did at all.

She couldn’t BELIEVE what she was about to do. She was probably going to regret this. She couldn’t even imagine what would happen once Clint got back. He would probably kill Steve and then Bucky too and then he would probably lock her in her bedroom for the rest of her natural life, which would be forever. She inwardly sighed, she sincerely hoped that she was doing the right thing and that it wouldn’t backfire on her too badly.

She looked up at Steve and gently squeezed his hand.

“ _Steve, I don’t know what good it’s going to do or if it will even help but I will try to talk to Bucky for you._ ” She murmured softly in his mind.

He gave her a look that was a cross between gratefulness and relief.

“Oh doll, you have no idea how much this means to me and I have no idea how even begin thanking you.” He told her gratefully.

She nodded gently and gave his hand another squeeze.

“ _Just please promise me that if I can’t do it you won’t be mad at me_.” She begged him.

His look turned tender and he nodded. He pushed her hair out of her face with his large hand and placed a gentle and tender kiss on her forehead. It was the first time he did such a thing and the contact made her blush but she didn’t hate it. In fact, her inner beast seemed to love the attention.

“I promise you that if something goes wrong I will be there to protect you.” He told her adamantly.

She knew that he meant every word that he just said and for the first time she knew that she could trust that would do so without a doubt.

For a few more minutes, she sat in a comfortable silence with Steve and then she decided that it was time go and get talking with Bucky over with. She knew that it wasn’t going to be easy or pleasant and she just wanted to get it done and over with. Plus, there was something that just wasn’t sitting right with her being alone with Steve in Clint’s bedroom. It already felt as if she was doing something naughty behind her father’s back as it was.

Even though there was still a part of her that didn’t think she could do what she was about to try and do, she let Steve lead her from Clint’s bedroom and out of Clint’s apartment. The whole way back to Steve’s apartment, she fidgeted restlessly she just couldn’t help it. She felt like this whole thing was going to backfire right into her face somehow. Before she and Steve entered his apartment, he crouched down in front her like Clint had done so many times before and took her smalls in his larger ones. His emotions were calm and gentle and they made her feel better but she still felt scared.

“ _I’m scared._ ” She murmured to him inside of his mind.

She wondered if she would ever be able to stop staying those words. Steve gave her reassuring look.

“Oh doll, I know and I’m sorry. I promise that I will keep you safe.” He reassured her.

She nodded, she knew that he would keep her safe and if she couldn’t do it everything would be okay. He got up and they entered his apartment together. She saw that Bucky was sitting on the couch. Those dark piercing eyes seemed to be staring at nothing. She knew that it wouldn’t take him long to figure out that she and Steve were standing next to the door. Sure enough, he turned in the direction of the door and as soon as he saw her he glared at her. It was clear that he disliked her as much as she disliked him. She realized that this was going to be much, much harder than she first thought it was going to be. Steve stood next to her protectively and for that she was eternally grateful. She was just about clinging to him.

Finally, she managed to un-glue herself from Steve and tried to shuffle closer to the couch. As she did this Bucky’s glare worsened and she began to wonder if she shouldn’t just try and forget the whole thing. It was clear Bucky wanted nothing to do with her.

Before she could either try to back away from him or get closer to him, she caught a whiff of his scent. It smelt nothing like it did before. She realized that he must have gotten cleaned up. Of course, he smelt nothing like Steve did but her inner beast liked it all the same.

Now not only was she completely weirded out but she was confused too and she had no idea what to do about it.

Why, oh why did Clint have to go away on a mission? All she wanted was to be in his apartment with him there with her.

How was she going to deal with this?

 


	14. So Completely Selfless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey everybody! Here is a new chapter of Lightfire all ready to go! I hope you all like it! I have to warn people that there is a pretty big trigger warning this chapter. I don’t know if it is enough to bump up the rating of the story or not so if somebody could let me know that would be gravy! Also, I really have to thank everybody for all the kudos, bookmarks and comments. It has been absolutely insane! It is so nice seeing people enjoying my stuff! If you fine readers could keep up that stuff I would appreciate it! Feedback is like my bread and butter and it keeps me going! 
> 
> Note: It seems to me that I forgot to add one really important thing! Thank you everybody for letting me take the time to get over the passing of my dog. Thank you all so much for understanding and to anybody who left me a note. They really helped! 
> 
> I think that’s all I have to say! Happy reading y’all! 
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nada! I would love to own Bucky and Steve though!

_ Charlie _

Charlie was so confused. While Bucky’s scent didn’t exactly call to her like Steve’s did, she wasn’t reacting to it normally at all. She wasn’t reacting to it in the same way that she reacted to Clint’s scent either. This was like some sort of weird anomaly and she didn’t know what to do about it. She decided that she had better figure out what she was going to do about it fast because Bucky was still glaring murder at her.

Before she chickened out, she sat down beside him. He looked at her with a look that clearly said ‘ _how dare you sit next to me without my permission_ ’ but she just ignored it. She couldn't believe that was going to willingly touch Bucky again after everything she already absorbed from him. She still didn’t want to do it but she had to try for Steve's sake.

She reached out and placed her small hand onto his forearm. Immediately, she was assaulted with more of his memories and she tried to block them all out. He looked at her with shock like he was shocked that she would want to touch him so freely at all in the first place.

“ _Hi Bucky, my name is Charlie, I know this is very shocking and confusing to you but you have to try and listen to me okay_?” She murmured softly inside of his head.

At her words and the fact that she was ‘speaking to him’ inside of his head, she could feel that Bucky’s shock increased tenfold. He tried to jerk his arm away from her small hand but she held on and refused to let go. Thankfully, the feral mutation inside of her made her strong so she was able to hold on.

“ _Bucky, I know it’s hard, believe me I do but you have to try and calm down. I promise you that my mutation won’t hurt you. I am just using it to talk to you. It’s the only way I can communicate with you.”_ She explained gently.

Her explanation seemed to do some good and Bucky calmed down a little bit.

“ _That’s it, look I know it sounds insane but I want to try and help you. I know what it feels like to have your mind torn apart and then put back together with a bunch of pieces missing. It’s makes you feel violated and it sucks. I just want to try and help you get some of those missing pieces back.”_ She said soothingly.

Bucky looked at her incredulously. It was clear that he didn’t believe her at all. His emotions still screamed complete hostility toward her.

She internally sighed. She had a feeling that it wouldn’t be THAT easy to convince him that she wasn’t his enemy. It was time to go to plan B. This was something she rarely ever did with the exception of doing it with Clint and sharing one memory with Steve because she never wanted anybody to have to see what she went through but desperate times called for desperate measures.

She locked eyes with Bucky and began showing him her memories.

Immediately, his eyes went huge and tried to pull away again harder but she wasn’t giving up without a fight.

“ _No Bucky, this is something you have to see. I’m sorry but you have to understand and this is the only way to do it_.” She murmured gently.

She showed him everything she could remember. From when she was captured from the school, to when they tried to make ‘Darkfire' come out of her and control it. She also showed him everything that happened to her after Victor took off up until the chip in her brain started malfunctioning and they stopped being able control her at all.

Victor taking off on her had been one of the worst things ever to happen to her and it made her life a living hell. Not that it already wasn't at that point but after he left everything got so much worse. She had lost the only person she felt safe with and that could protect her from the short man and his stupid goons. With no Victor to protect her, the short man tried twice as hard to make ‘Darkfire’ come out and there was nothing she could do to stop it and she got punished for everything. Even if she came back from a mission successful, the short man still found some kind of reason to punish her.

She could feel tears pricking at the corners of her violet eyes as particularly nasty memory suddenly surfaced.

_ Memory _

_Charlie cowered in the corner of her cage. Ever since Victor took off and left her to rot in this place all alone, everything went completely sideways on her. She lost her protector and the only person who came anywhere close treating her like she wasn't a disposable piece of garbage. The short man and his stupid goons made sure she knew it too._

_She could smell short man coming from a mile away and she could smell that his goons were with him too. She knew that she was in serious trouble. Now that Victor was no longer there to protect her, they had been doing everything could to bring ‘Darkfire’ out and keep her out. She knew that they were coming to do have another ‘session’ as the dark man called it. To her it felt like torture. One of these days she was sure that she would lose her mind completely either to ‘Darkfire’ or from that stupid control chip he put in her head._

_Sure enough, the short man entered the room with his stupid goons. Even though she that she knew it was completely pointless, she tried to back up against the opposite side of the cage. The short man grinned in a sickening way at her and approached her cage slowly._

_“Come now, my sweet little Lightfire. It's not so bad.” The short man crooned darkly._

_She couldn't help but shudder at the short man's words. She knew what his definition of ‘not so bad' was. He stopped just in front of her cage and continued to grin at her darkly._

_She knew that he had something planned for her and whatever it was she knew that she wasn't going to like it at all. She watched the short man command his goons to open her cage. This set her instincts on edge immediately. She didn’t want those to idiots anywhere near her. Before she could even try to do anything to protect herself, she short man activated the chip inside of her head. She tried fight it off the best that she could but it was no good. She remained frozen in place. The goons approached her and she knew exactly what was going to happen to her._

_One of the goons produced a key from his pocket and unlocked her collar. It fell uselessly to the ground and she could do nothing about it. Because of the stupid chip in her head, she couldn’t even try to defend herself. The goons wasted no time in trying to touch everything they could get their hands on. It was like they were sex starved or something. One of goons managed to get her pants undone and tried to yank them down her legs hard. That was all it took for ‘darkfire’ to break free._

_She let out an awful, distorted sounding howl and ‘Darkfire’ exploded from her. She let as much purple energy gather around her small palm as she could. Without warning, she let it loose and it the goons didn’t stand a chance. It all happened so fast that they didn’t even know what had hit them. After they were taken care of, she turned her attention to the short man. She was going to make him pay for everything he put her through. Again, she gathered as much purple energy as she could around her small palm. She pushed herself to the brink._

_She grinned at the short man maliciously and for the first time ever she could smell a bit of fear coming from him. It felt glorious and she wanted nothing more than to make him feel as much fear as she could. He wanted ‘darkfire’ now he was going to get all of her and then some. Just as she was about to let loose another surge of power, he pulled something from behind his back._

_Her dark eyes widened when she realized that it was a gun. Oh no. She knew what that gun was for. He was going to shoot her in the head with silver bullets. This is what he did when he knew that the control chip wouldn’t stop her. He grinned back at her just as maliciously and pointed the gun in her direction. Before she could even attempt to do anything about it, he had already pulled the trigger._

_She let out a distorted, pain filled scream as the bullets ripped through her flesh. Getting shot in the head was hell. The pain was indescribable, and she never ever knew what she would and wouldn’t remember when she woke up again._

_As suddenly as everything happened, it was over. She collapsed onto the floor of her cage and the darkness consumed her completely._

_ End Memory _

Charlie yanked herself from the horrible memory and she couldn’t help the sob that escaped her. Of all the times that the short man had shot her in the head, that had been by far the worst. She hadn’t actually meant to push it THAT far when she started showing Bucky all of her memories but once it started she couldn’t stop it. Now, she felt humiliated and upset. She hated sharing memories of herself being abused by the short man’s goons they made her feel all gross and dirty. She severed her connection with Bucky so he wouldn’t see any more of her memories. She had shared enough of them with him for one night.

Reliving all of those horrible memories had made her so upset that no matter what she tried to do she was unable to calm herself down. She could almost feel something like anxiety attack coming on. Thankfully, Steve came and crouched down in front of her. Immediately, he started doing everything he could to get her to calm down some. She inhaled deeply and took in some of his scent. Her inner beast began to purr and she finally started to calm down. Steve took her small hand in his and started relaying calming emotions to her. This helped her calm down even more, normally she hated feeling other people’s emotions but Steve was an exception that rule and so was Clint. Steve’s emotions were always kind and gentle.

She saw that Bucky was watching the entire exchange between her and Steve. She could see that it was making him totally uncomfortable but he was no longer acting like she was his enemy so that was step in the right direction. He got up and wordlessly left the room.

She sighed internally, she sincerely hoped that showing him all of those terrible memories was the right thing to do.

_ Bucky _

Bucky got up and left the living room. He entered Steve’s guest bedroom and started pacing back and fourth trying to process what he just went through. When he decided to seek Steve out he didn’t think anybody would be with him. From what he recalled, and it wasn’t much at all, the opposite sex was not Steve’s forte. After what he just witnessed, Steve could say that they weren’t together all he wanted but he knew that it was complete BS.

When he first caught sight of her, he instantly knew that there was something about her that wasn’t normal. Not only did she try to fight him with out a second thought, she managed to hold her own pretty good too. No normal human being to could do that. Not to mention her unique eye color. He had never seen eyes like hers before in all of his life. When she stared at him, they seemed to almost bore right into him. It was completely unnerving to him. She was completely unnerving. So much so that the assassin part of him perceived her to be a threat and wanted to get rid of her. Thankfully Steve stopped him before he did anything stupid.

He sighed softly and ran a hand through his long, messy brown hair. He wanted nothing more to put away the assassin for good and just try to be Bucky again. He was so sick and tired of trying to function with a half a damn brain. It was impossible to do so. He barely knew who he was or anything before HYDRA fucked up his brain. Steve was the first person he remembered from his life before he got turned into a killing machine. He had hoped that Steve would be able to help him remember more of his life and maybe help him put the assassin away for good. He was not at all expecting this complication in the form of a little violet-eyed dame with a bunch of weird abilities.

When Steve brought her back into the apartment with him, he again felt the assassin try to claw its way out. It was still perceiving her to be a ‘threat’ that should be eliminated. Before he could do anything to leave the situation before something bad happened, she quickly came and sat down next to him. It was clear that her instincts were telling her that she shouldn’t do this, but she was ignoring them and did it anyway. He was shocked. She knew that he was dangerous yet she willingly sat down next to him anyway and then she touched him.

He would never forget what he felt when she touched him. He thought it was shocking when she willingly sat down next to him. This was on a whole other level. He could _feel_ her emotions it was like nothing he ever felt before. When she started talking to him inside of his head, he tried to pull away from her because it was freaking him out so much but she wouldn’t have any of it. She explained to him that her name was Charlie and that she was a mutant. She explained to him that it was one of her mutations that was allowing her to speak to him inside of his head and that she understood what he was going through.

Immediately he began to get angry at her for saying such a thing. How could she even come close to understanding what he went through?

Before he could question her, she began showing him memory after memory. This wasn’t like what he went through at all, this was so much worse. She was so young and they stole her from the only place that she felt comfortable in and tried to turn her into a monster. The took apart her mind and tried to put it back together. They tried to turn her into a killing machine just like him. Who does this shit to little girls?

Just when he didn’t think it could get any worse, she showed him this memory of them trying to get this thing out of her. Whatever it was, it was uncontrollable and they had to pretty much sexually assault her to get it out of her. Watching those assholes try to rip off her pants made him sick and then the thing just exploded out of her.

She killed the goons like they were nothing and then the guy he assumed was the brains behind the whole operation pulled a gun from behind his back and shoot her in the head like it was nothing. He thought that the machine HYDRA strapped him in to wipe his memories clean was bad this was so much worse.

This poor little dame had been through hell and back. He was starting to understand why Steve wanted to protect her so much. She had been through so much and she didn’t deserve to have her brain ripped apart by those assholes. She DID understand what he was going through so much and he found himself maybe wanting to get to know her more. Those big violet eyes of hers had seared themselves in his mind and now he was very curious about her. Maybe they could even help each other out.

He only hoped that Steve could learn to share.

_ Charlie  _

Charlie let out a soft, slightly distorted sigh. Now that Bucky was gone and she had calmed down a bit she decided that it would be a good idea to get back to Clint’s apartment. Sharing all of those memories with Bucky made her extremely exhausted and all she wanted to do was go sleep. Oh how she wished Clint was with her right now. She was so nervous that all of this was going to blow up her face and Clint wouldn’t be here to help her. She could only imagine what would happen when Clint got back and how she was going to try to convince him that all of this was okay?

She knew that nothing would make Clint not want her but she also didn’t want him to get mad at her either. She decided that going back to Clint’s apartment and trying to figure it would be the best thing to do.

She got up ready to leave and Steve gave her a questioning look. She gently touched his arm so she could talk to him.

“ _I think I should go back to Clint’s apartment now. I’m tired and I need sleep. All of that took a lot out of me_.” She explained to him softly inside of his head.

He gave her a look. She could tell that he didn’t like the idea of her being alone at the moment at all.

“Doll, I don’t think that’s a good idea. You just went through something huge and I don’t think you should be alone right now.” He told her gently.

His eyes were gentle and pleading. She mulled over what he told her in his head. She knew that he was just trying to look out for her. Maybe he had a point, she could only imagine what kind of dreams or probably nightmares she might have because of this. It probably wasn’t the best idea to try and deal with all of that on her own. At least Steve could help her through it if it got really bad. As for when Clint came back, she knew that Steve would never ever leave her to try and explain it all to him on her own.

She looked up at Steve and nodded softly. She could see just how relieved he was that she agreed to stay with him instead of going back to Clint’s apartment again.

“ _Okay Steve, maybe you are right. Going back to Clint’s apartment to try and deal with what just happened to me is probably not the best idea in the world._ ” She admitted.

Steve’s look turned affectionate at what she said and he chuckled softly.

“Not doll, it’s probably not a good idea at all. Come on, I think it’s time you tried to get some real sleep.”  He agreed.

She got up off of the couch and Steve led her from the living room to his bedroom. Considering that Bucky was using his spare room, she really had no where else she could sleep besides the couch and Steve was far too much a gentleman to let her do that. If anything, he would give her his bed and sleep on the couch if she asked it of him.

Of course, considering that they had already slept on the couch together it wasn’t necessary anyway. Together, they entered his bedroom. It was very simple, clean and saturated with his scent. Like Clint’s clean scent, it comforted her inner beast greatly. After showing her where everything was, Steve went to retrieve her a shirt and boxers she could change into should she want to clean herself up a bit. She took the offered clothes and gave him a grateful look. While she would have been fine staying in the clothes she had on, after everything that she went through a hot shower would go a long way in making her feel so much better.

She placed her small hand gently on his arm.

“ _Thanks Steve, I really appreciate this._ ” She told him gratefully.

He gave her a tender look and took her small hand in his large one.

“Of course doll, there an extra tooth brush under the sink if you want it. Feel free to use anything you want.” He offered, giving her small hand a little stroke.

She smiled and squeezed his hand. Feeling especially brave, she reached up and place a soft kiss on Steve’s jaw. He looked at her in shock at the contact.

It was the first time she initiated contact with somebody of the opposite sex that wasn’t Clint and she found that she didn’t hate it. In fact, she sort of like it and maybe it was something that she wanted to explore further at a later date. For the time being, the shower was calling her name. She left Steve standing there with shock written all over his face and disappeared into the bathroom.

_ Steve _

Steve stood in place staring at the place where his little doll stood moments ago in shock. He had not expected her to initiate such contact but he couldn’t say that he was complaining about it. He enjoyed far more than he probably should of even, but he couldn’t help it. Charlie was un-like anybody he had ever met before. She was amazing. She did something for him that put her in a position that nobody should ever have to put in. He could see how scared and un-sure she was about doing it. Yet she did it anyway. She deserved everything he could give her and then some.

He had never felt anything like this before. This was nothing like his relationship with Sharon at all. This was something so much better.

He un-froze from his spot in front of his bathroom door and began his night time routine. He changed into a pair of pyjama pants and crawled into bed. Not long later, Charlie popped out of his bathroom looking much happier and refreshed. She was looking at him with those big violet eyes of hers. She had her hair down and his shirt and boxers were way too big on her small little frame but he couldn’t say that he didn’t enjoy how they looked on her. Probably more so than he should. He beckoned her over and she compiled.

She crawled into bed with him and curled up against him. For a long time, they sat enjoying a comfortable silence just simply relaying emotions back and fourth between each other until she slowly started drifting off to sleep.  

For the first time since he woke up from being frozen, he felt real happiness and he wouldn’t change it for anything.


	15. NOTE

Hey everybody!

First of all, and I can't stress this enough, please don't kill me! I know I am putting author's notes on this shit left and right but you guys all deserve to know what is up. Now that I am working on Professor's Pet, I am really seeing what my stress levels can and can't handle for the time being and I have a lot of damn stories going at once. I never realized just how many until I actually started going through them an such. As I did this, I started to realize I might have to start tackling this shit systematically. I am sorry if that means some stories will take uber super long to update but I would rather put out decent quality stuff then a bunch of bullshit.

SO! For the time being I will be concentrating more on Professor's Pet, my original work Misfits and of course once I get more of Professor's Pet out, I will be jumping back in to Practical Magic part 2! Also, for the smut lovers out there I will be putting up a series of one-shots depicting all of the sexy scenes from Practical Magic! There is much to look forward too! I just think for the sake of my stress levels it is best to concentrate only a few things at one time.

In saying all of that, please don't start panicking about my other stories. I promise that they aren't abandoned I swear! Once I get more of my Dr. Strange stuff on the go I will be getting back into them once again I promise. I just wanted to let everybody who is reading my other stuff know what's up so they aren't waiting for an updated on a certain thing and wondering WTF is up!

Thank you all for being patient with me,

~Ryu


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